The Union ministries are busy creating profiles of the beneficiaries of various welfare schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna, Ayushman Bharat, PM Kisan Scheme and Standup India in the states including Bihar and West Bengal that will go for polls soon. “The Central government has launched various schemes in the last few months. We are creating the financial profiles of states, in terms of how people have availed benefits of various government schemes, especially the flagship ones. It will help us get the socio-economic profiling of the states,” said an official from the department of financial services under the Ministry of Finance.
While this seems to be a routine exercise, the various ministries have been asked to start with states that will go for assembly elections in the next one year. The survey will start with Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. All these states will go for polls in next one year. According to the official, the internal survey will include the number of bank account holders, beneficiaries of PM Kisan Yojana, Housing for All and Standup India initiatives, among others. Apart from these, it will also create a database of the number of subscribers for the national pension scheme, saving patterns, among others.
“This exercise will help understand the economic development in these regions. While states maintain their own profiles, some states like West Bengal are not very cooperative when it comes to participation in some of the Centre-sponsored schemes. This review of schemes, therefore, becomes significant,” said another senior official. The exercise is a direct fallout of the Delhi election results, where despite intensive campaigns led by Union home minister Amit Shah in the last four weeks before polls, the BJP lost to Aam Admi Party, whose campaign was solely based on social welfare schemes. Now with assembly elections scheduled in Bihar in October and in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in May, the ruling party is focusing closely on the economic issues, unemployment and financial inclusion.