Tag: Gujarat elections

Modi Kickstarts Distribution Of PMJAY-MA Yojana Ayushman Cards

By LokMarg

Prime Minister Narendra Modi kickstarted the distribution of PMJAY-MA Yojana Ayushman cards in Gujarat via video conferencing on Monday.

PM Modi also interacted with the beneficiaries virtually. As many as 50 lakh Ayushman cards have been printed in Gujarat and will be delivered soon to families.
The health scheme was launched by PM Modi on September 4, 2012, for BPL families. Under the scheme, the government met hospitalization and surgical procedures up to Rs 2 lakhs.

According to the government, around 46 lakh poor and lower-middle-class people have been given treatment worth more than Rs 8,000 crore till date, more than 600 transplantations are done of different organs, around 50,000 people have been benefited with joint replacements/orthopedic treatments, more than 7 lakh have taken treatment for cancer, around 3.50 lakh have availed care for heart diseases, more than 30 lakh have undergone various surgeries.

Special camps for generating awareness and enrolment in the PMJAY-MA scheme were carried out at around 2,500 places and around 5 lakh Ayushman cards were issued in 50 days during this campaign.

Efforts of Gujarat to protect poor people from costly medical care through PMJAY-MA-MAV schemes have been recognized by various agencies.

The Mukhyamantri Amrutum (MA) Yojana was one of its kind health scheme launched by Narendra Modi on 4th September 2012. It was a holistic health insurance scheme for BPL families and covered the entire cycle of a medical contingency, from diagnostic tests to post-hospitalization care. Under the scheme, the Government met the hospitalization and surgical procedures up to Rs 2 lakh. In addition, the scheme also includes a provision for transport allowance.

In a time when the rest of the nation was struggling to embrace the PPP model effectively, Gujarat implemented the PPP model in the health sector aiming to bring about a positive difference in the lives of the poor.

The scheme was expanded in 2014 to cover families with an annual income of Rs 4 lakhs and the Mukhya Mantri Amrutam Vatsalya (MAV) scheme was announced.

More than 46 lakh beneficiaries from Gujarat have benefitted from MA Yojana. As a result, more than Rs 8,000 crore have been saved by the poor patients. Under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, around 7500 health and wellness centers and 600 Deendayal Aushadhalaya were set up in Gujarat. The government of India’s PMJAY was integrated with MA and MAV Yojana by the Government of Gujarat in 2019.

Ayushman cards are being given to the beneficiaries of PMJAY-MA as per National Health Authority guidelines. (ANI)

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CBI Summons Sisodia

CBI Summons Sisodia, AAP Claims He Will Be Arrested

By LokMarg

In the wake of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summoning Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia for questioning in the alleged excise policy corruption case, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj on Sunday claimed that Sisodia “will be arrested tomorrow”.

He also tried to draw parallels between the CBI summoning Sisodia with the upcoming Gujarat elections.
According to Bhardwaj, the Bharatiya Janata Party is scared of AAP in Gujarat as it is competing with them.

“CBI has summoned Manish Sisodia and will arrest him tomorrow. It has been alleged that a huge scam of Rs 10,000 crore has taken place and for that CBI and ED (Enforcement Directorate) have raided at atleast 500 places so far. CBI raided Sisodia’s residence for 14 hours, but they could not find anything,” said AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj.

“This is directly linked with Gujarat elections as AAP competes with the BJP there and hence is scared. Manish Sisodia will be arrested to stop his programmes but the AAP will only grow stronger,” he added.

Bhardwaj further mentioned that he is confident about Sisodia’s arrest because the same drill has it happened earlier when AAP leaders were called for questioning and then arrested.

While exuding confidence in AAP’s victory in Gujarat, the AAP senior leader said that the party will emerge “stronger” with the “increasing” numbers of arrests.

“We would have remained silent if we were afraid. The rise in the number of arrests will raise our graph in Gujarat, the increase in BJP’s oppression will make our graph rise,” he said.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was summoned by CBI today and he shall go to the central agency’s headquarters on Monday, he confirmed with his tweet.

“I will go and fully cooperate with the CBI as it has called me to the headquarters at 11 am tomorrow after raiding my house for 14 hours and searching bank account and even my village where they could not find anything,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.

In August, the enforcement agencies conducted searches on Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s official residence among several other places in connection with the alleged corruption in the implementation of Delhi’s excise policy.

Sisodia, who is in charge of the excise department, has been under the scanner for alleged deliberate and gross procedural lapses which provided undue benefits to the tender process for liquor licensees for the year 2021-22.

Sisodia is believed to have executed decisions in violation of the statutory provisions of the Excise Policy, which could have huge financial implications. Such “undue financial favours” to the liquor licensees after the deadline for awarding tenders caused huge losses to the exchequer, sources earlier claimed.

The excise policy was passed in chief minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Cabinet in the middle of the deadly Delta Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.

Sisodia was among 15 others booked in an FIR filed by the CBI in August including then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar.

Other accused are Manoj Rai, a former employee of Pernod Ricard; Amandeep Dhal, director of Brindco Sales; director of Buddy Retail Amit Arora, and Dinesh Arora; authorised signatories of Mahadev Liquors Sunny Marwah, Arun Ramchandra Pillai and Arjun Pandey.

The ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority’s approval. The beneficiaries diverted “illegal” gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection.

As alleged, the Excise Department had decided to refund the Earnest Money Deposit of about Rs 30 crore to a successful tenderer against the set rules. Even though there was no enabling provision, a waiver on tendered licence fees was allowed from December 28, 2021, to January 27, 2022, due to COVID-19.

This allegedly caused a loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer, said the FIR, which has been instituted on a reference from the Union Home Ministry following a recommendation from Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. (ANI)

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Gujarati poet and filmmaker

AAP is Trying to Beat BJP at Their Own Game in Gujarat

By LokMarg

Mehul Devkala, a Gujarati poet andaward-winning filmmaker, says Aam Aadmi Party is following a strategy which is very similar to one of BJP

Electoral politics in Gujarat has traditionally been a two-party affair. This is the first time that three political parties are in the contest. One cannot deny a strong anti-incumbency factor because the state has been a BJP laboratory for 27 years.

If you look at AAP’s campaign strategy, they are working professionally. Their agenda is consistently changing according to the region; ideology does not matter to them. For example, in the Bilkis Bano case, the AAP kept silent for the fear of hurting a section of voters. They have followed a strategy which is on the same lines as the BJP.

Last year, winning 27 seats in the Surat Municipal Corporation helped in creating a positive perception of AAP, whereas Congress did not fare well. If you visit Gandhinagar now, you will see all sorts of government employees protesting against the state government on various issues for the last one month or more. The old pension scheme is one of those issues that they are demanding. When people asked AAP’s stand on this, they first said they will think over it.  But when the Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh governments implemented it, AAP announced the same in Punjab.

ALSO READ: ‘If AAP Fails To Deliver, Punjab Will Never Forgive It’

So, I see this election as a contest between three models: the Gujarat model of BJP, the Delhi model of AAP, and the Rajasthan model of Congress. Rajasthan is a border state and its CM Ashok Gehlot is the Congress observer for assembly polls. Newspapers here are printing full-page advertisements of Rajasthan Government schemes almost daily.

AAP is shaping its strategy in response to these two models. For example, AAP is distributing employment guarantee cards to people – a token against their pre-poll promise on the question of unemployment – if they come to power. Arvind Kejriwal is visiting the homes of Dalits and rickshaw-pullers on the same lines as Modi-Shah duo has done routinely. This is essentially a marketing gimmick, but it is hurting Congress’s fortunes.

Right now, AAP is a regional party. But if it wins in Gujarat it will become a national party. There is a tendency among voters to give a new party a chance and Kejriwal’s poll slogan serves that appeal. That is why the clarion call: Ek mauko Kejriwal ne. There are two local faces representing Kejriwal – Gopal Italia and Isudan Gadhvi. Gadhvi has been a journalist who has consistently raised people’s issues, so people have faith in his words. Gopal has been a leader of the Patidar reservation agitation and is now the Convener of Gujarat AAP.

AAP is building a narrative that the last 27 years in the state have seen a friendly fight between Congress and BJP. It is making forays in rural areas too. So its effect is not just limited to urban constituencies. Then there is also Owaisi’s AIMIM contesting in cities.

Those seats where the winning margin of BJP in the last assembly election was less than five thousand, if Muslim and anti-incumbency votes get divided into AIMIM and AAP, then it will harm Congress. BJP may lose some seats too.

Congress has some hopes in the Rajasthan-bordering tribal areas with a strong BTP presence, the tribal party run by popular leader Chhotubhai Vasava. AAP had organised a joint rally with Vasava back in April and was trying to build its base there. Recently that relationship became sour. Vasava alleged that AAP was trying to break his party. After that Congress leader Pawan Khera went there and met Vasava. Now it seems BTP has returned to the Congress fold.

People in Gujarat are not as politically aware as in UP or Bihar. They are largely a business community which have little interest in political analysis. People like us may delve into ideological narratives but this neither matters to AAP nor Gujarati voters. These factors would ensure that anti-incumbency votes will get divided. If AAP had not been there, this election may have been a sure-shot win for the Congress.

As told to Abhishek Srivastava