KOCHI: The row over the distribution of free rice to schoolchildren and free grocery kit to all ration card holders is a repeat of the developments that happened in 2011 and 2016 ahead of then assembly polls. On both occasions, the then oppositions found fault with the government’s undue haste in distributing freebies to voters ahead of election.
In 2011, V S Achuthanandan government announced rice at Rs 2 per kg for all ration card holders without APL/BPL distinction. The decision was taken in the cabinet meeting held on February 23, 2011, which was the last full-fledged meeting held before the notification of the assembly election. In fact, the government issued hasty orders to ensure that the distribution of subsidised rice wouldn’t be hit by the model code of conduct.
However, the election commission vetoed the decision after the then opposition leader Oommen Chandy raised a flag against the intention of the government. The commission’s order was challenged in the High Court by CPI leader and then MLA Rajaji Mathew Thomas.
The division bench led by Justice J Chelameswar quashed the EC order and allowed the government to implement the scheme, by noting that the decision and other steps for implementing the scheme were taken before March 1, 2011, when the model code of conduct came into effect.
In 2016, the election commission found fault with the Oommen Chandy government’s decision to provide free rice to all BPL families in the state. The decision was announced in the budget that year and also necessary orders were issued before the model code of conduct came into force. However, the then chief electoral officer E K Majhi told the government that the scheme couldn’t be launched as a new scheme as notification for election has been issued.
The government then forwarded all files to the commission and decided to approach the High Court against the order. On the eve of going to the court, the commission cleared the proposal after receiving legal advice that the 2011 order by Justice J Chelameswar was binding for this decision too. The commission had laid out several strictures including not adding any new beneficiary to the scheme or not advertising the scheme as an achievement of the government during the campaign while clearing the proposal. Interestingly, the then CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was supportive of the EC’s decision.
“Oommen Chandy is intolerant to the Election Commission. His government would be known as the first to take on the Election Commission which only questioned its wrongdoings,” Pinarayi had said during an election campaign meeting in Kozhikode then.
As his role reversed to the chief minister, Pinarayi is now finding fault with Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, alleging a bid by him to stop the distribution of food to the needy. In 2011, V S Achuthanandan sought a public apology from Oommen Chandy after the High Court cleared the Rs 2 rice scheme for trying to sabotage the scheme.
Along with the distribution of free rice under the noon-meal scheme to schoolchildren, the LDF Government has made all arrangements to finish the distribution of the Ramzan-Vishu free grocery kit before April 6, the polling day. The decision to start distribution in the last week of March, which was now changed to April 1, was to ensure that maximum number of families would receive the kit before D-Day. Arrangements were also made to provide two months’ social welfare pension of Rs 3,100 – including Rs 1,500 for March and the revised Rs 1,600 for April - to nearly 50 lakh beneficiaries. For streamlining the fund flow, Finance Minister Thomas Isaac convened a meeting of the Finance Department and Treasury officials on March 19.
The state has borrowed Rs 8,000 crore by auctioning bonds this month for facilitating the smooth distribution of all welfare schemes. The additional revenue in the state’s coffers will also help it provide revised pay for government employees and revised pension for state government employees in the first week of April itself. The March-19 meeting convened by Isaac had also decided to make Good Friday and Easter as working days for treasuries so that salary and pension are distributed before the polling day. Christian employees will be given restricted holidays on both days.
