Shinde govt undertakes outreach programme at a cost of ₹125 crore

Mumbai: Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government has decided to go aggressive on public outreach and has chalked out a drive to reach out to at least 2

Mumbai: Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government has decided to go aggressive on public outreach and has chalked out a drive to reach out to at least 2.7 million people in the next two months by spending over ₹125 crore.

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Through the outreach programme, being implemented across the state by extending thousands of state and central schemes, the state government hopes to create goodwill ahead of the ensuing local body polls.

The state government is all set to spend a whopping ₹52.91 crore on the publicity of the drive called ‘Shashan Apalya Dari’ (government at your doorstep) to be implemented in the next two months until July 18. A special budgetary allocation has been made for it.

The government has also made special arrangements to spend ₹30 crore, out of the total ₹15,150 crore earmarked for development works in 36 districts of the state, in the outreach programme.

To mobilise more funds, the government has directed ₹70 crore to be pulled from area development funds of legislators. Out of ₹5 crore that each legislator gets to spend for local development works, they have been told to utilise up to ₹20 lakh towards the outreach programme.

In the inaugural function of the drive last week in Patan, Satara, the state government distributed certificates and government documents to over 27,000 beneficiaries. The beneficiaries were given foodgrains and agricultural goods in a huge trunk at the grand event chaired by chief minister Eknath Shinde.

Officials from the finance department were reportedly not in favour of the huge expenditure during the drive.

“The political leadership wanted to increase the allocation made from the district planning fund and the areas development funds to which we opposed,” said a senior official from Mantralaya.

“As far as the area development fund is concerned, legislators from opposition parties are unlikely to agree to divert the funds from their allocation and thus the diversion of ₹70 crore may not fully realise,” added the official.

“However, the funds can be diverted from the district development funds as it is done by the ministers. The spending on the advertisement and campaign is perhaps highest on any drive in the recent past,” said the official.

Abdul Sattar, agriculture minister and Shinde camp leader, said, “We are having a grand event in Kannad assembly constituency as a part of the drive. We expect to take thousands of state and central government schemes to people, especially our voters.”

The drive is reportedly undertaken to woo the voters ahead of the polls to 24 municipal corporations and 26 district councils and other local bodies in which over 90% of the population is expected to vote. The elections are expected to be held in October–November this year.