Cong, BJP in election mode, compete to win over voters through welfare camps

Ajay Ramola

Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, May 29

The BJP and the Congress have devised a novel method of conducting social welfare camps in Mussoorie with an aim to garner more votes in the 2017 Assembly elections in the state.

The local Congress unit conducted a social welfare camp for the poor and the needy on the Municipal Council premises here today. The BJP led by Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi had organised a social welfare and Aadhaar identification camp recently.

Both Congress and BJP do not want to be left behind in being perceived as pro-poor and pro-needy and are expecting to gain a political advantage over the other by conducting such camps.

Former Tourism and Cultural Promotion Minister Jot Singh Gunsola, Mussoorie SDM Shalini Negi, Naib Tehsildar Virendar, Municipal Council president Manmohan Singh Mall, local Congress unit president Satish Dhaundiyal and Social Welfare Department officials attended the camp to help people get widow pension and benefits of various welfare schemes being run by the state government.

Congress workers said the BJP camp conducted under MLA Ganesh Joshi a month ago was a mere publicity stunt as most of the forms filled for various social schemes then were gathering dust at the SDM Office. They said officials had been told to complete all formalities and expedite all forms filled and submitted today so that the applicants did not have to run from pillar to post.

Social Welfare Department officials said around 70 applicants were found eligible for widow pension and 11 for pension for differently-able person. One application form for the divorce honorarium scheme was also accepted, said the Social Welfare Department officials.

They said they would conduct more such camps and awareness programmes to inform people about various welfare schemes of the government.

Congress leaders demanded that the monthly income criteria for all such schemes should be revised upwards from Rs 1,700 to Rs 4,000 for all such schemes in the state to remove anomalies and problems being faced by poor people. They said people who had submitted applications at the camps organised by the BJP should fill new forms at this camp.

Meanwhile, the BJP rubbished the claims of Congress leaders and said if forms submitted earlier were gathering dust at the SDM office, the BJP legislator was being cold shouldered. However, such a competition between the Congress and the BJP is bound to prove beneficial to the people as it will ultimately shape their policies in future and lead to improvement in the functioning of the Social Welfare Department.