PANAJI
Come elections and governments of all hues attempt to win over sections of the electorate and target groups with special schemes and sops.
Goa’s Pramod Sawant-led government is no exception.
Less than 48-hours before the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule of the elections to the legislative assemblies of Goa and four other States and with it enforced the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), the Sawant government notified two schemes.
The first, a pension scheme, targetted seafarers who comprise a wide section of the Goan population and the second, is a revived old subsidy scheme for purchase of computers, lap-tops, tablets and cameras which targets the State’s crucial to election-propaganda journalist community.
Both the notifications of these schemes were issued on January 6, two days before the ECI’s model Code of Conduct came into force, by the departments of Home and Information & Publicity.
The pension scheme for retired Indian seamen envisages disbursement of a monthly pension of Rs 2,500 to those who held lower-rung positions in the merchant navy.
The scheme is to be implemented through the NRI Commissioner’s office.
The subsidy scheme for purchase of computers, lap-tops, tablets and cameras for journalists and photo-journalists is an old 2013 sop revived by the Sawant government.
Under it, journalists who have been in the profession for eight years and more are eligible for a subsidy of up to Rs 50,000 for purchase of laptops, PCs and tablets.
Similarly, photo-journalists are eligible for a subsidy of up to Rs one-lakh for purchase of professional cameras. However, those who availed the scheme in 2013 will not be eligible now.
