PANAJI
With the plan to give five litres of petrol free of cost to youth, if the Congress does come to power, it will have to pump in an additional Rs 95 crore. Taking into consideration the 20 to 30 year age group, as per Goa’s census, a total of 2.63 lakh can avail of this benefit. Per month costs will run into Rs 7.9 crore which adds up to Rs 95 crore per annum.
In terms of schemes, the Congress has also promised to increase the current Griha Aadhar scheme for housewives from the current amount of Rs 1,500 to Rs 5,000 per month.
Currently there are around one lakh beneficiaries for the scheme and through budget allocations the current government has allocated Rs 180 crore per year for the scheme. Increasing it to Rs 5,000 will bring this spending amount to Rs 600 crore, thus requiring an additional Rs 420 crore to be pumped into fulfilling the promise.
For the mining affected, Congress in addition to restoring mining operations in the state by incorporating the Supreme Court recommendations has said it would completely waive off outstanding loans through its one truck/ tanker per family scheme.
The BJP government had through its one-time settlement scheme settled over Rs 208 crore in principal amounts on loans of truck and barge owners. Later, after this scheme was stopped, a Rs five lakh relief had been promised but the 3,500 truck owners that have since been protesting, are yet to receive it.
Considering a total of 3,500 truckers that are waiting to have their loans waived off, the Congress’ one truck/ tanker per family settlement will cost them Rs 303 crore.
But with an additional total expenditure of Rs 818 crore on the three schemes,
Congress says it will be able to sustain the state’s economy simply by plugging revenue leakages and through
collections.
AICC President Girish Chodankar said Goa had been financially mismanaged with many ghost beneficiaries availing of schemes like the Ladli Laxmi and Deen Dayal Social Security Scheme.
“This list needs to be cleaned and the real needy ones need to be identified. Those who don’t need it, also get it. For Ladli Laxmi, with so much tamasha the beneficiaries have not even crossed 22,000. This shows they are selective in giving the schemes,” he said.
Plugging revenue leakages plus recovery of money that the government has failed to collect will help in tiding over the financial implications without burdening the people of Goa, he said. “For example, Rs 80 crore on construction of fishing jetties has inflated costs. Money is being spent on consultants’ fees. This wasted money can be diverted for schemes. NABARD project money can be channelised to better the schemes.”
