NEW DELHI: A verbal duel ensued on Sunday between the BJP and Congress over a government decision to conduct a mega nationwide drive ‘Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra’ and make deployment of senior bureaucrats for it. The yatra’s objective is to take all welfare schemes to completion through public awareness.
The government has decided to deploy officials in the rank of joint secretary, director, and deputy secretary pertaining to various services as "district rath prabharis (special officers)."
After Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s objection to the drive, BJP chief Jagat Prakash Nadda accused the Congress and its leaders of being anti-poor. Nadda said that public service delivery is the duty of the government.
Taking to X, Nadda said: “It may be an alien concept to the Congress, but public service delivery is the duty of a government. If the Modi government wants to ensure saturation of all schemes and ensure all beneficiaries are reached, nobody who has the interest of the poor in his mind can have a problem”.
On Kharge’s charge that the government was misusing civil servants for politically motivated drive, Nadda countered him saying the Congress had an issue with public servants reaching the grassroots. “It baffles me… the Congress is having an issue with public servants reaching the grassroots to ensure saturation of schemes. If this is not the basic tenet of governance, what is? Regarding opposition to a ‘rath’, it is a fit use of public resource unlike using warships as personal yachts,” he remarked on X.
Speaking about the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, a senior official said that specially designed ‘raths’ depicting the social welfare schemes of the Modi government will reach the beneficiaries to make them aware of schemes.
According to official sources, the drive, months ahead of the general election, will be organised across the country’s 2.69 lakh panchayats in 765 districts.
The first-of-its-kind drive is proposed to disseminate information on the achievements of government in the last 9 years. It is scheduled to begin on November 20 and last until January 25. T