No violation, direct cash transfer scheme announced in budget: Congress to Election Commission

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday told the Election Commission that it did not violate the model code of conduct by announcing the direct cash transfer scheme. In its reply to a notice from the poll panel, the government stressed that the scheme was among the proposals announced by then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in his budget speech in March. Also, the Prime Minister's Office had issued a statement on September 28, in which it was said that the prime minister has set up the architecture for moving to electronic cash transfers leveraging Aadhaar.

The government, in its reply, said that both these announcements were made well before the model code of conduct came into force on October 3 for the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The Election Commission will announce its decision on Tuesday on the Centre's reply.

Earlier in the day, telecom minister Kapil Sibal said the government had not violated the model code of conduct. "This (direct cash transfer) is only an implementation of an announcement that has already been made...the government has neither directly or indirectly violated the election code because the policy announcement was made way back in the budget speech by the then finance minister," Sibal said.

Without commenting on the EC letter to the Cabinet Secretary, Congress used the opportunity to lash out at BJP. "We still don't know what the stand of the principal Opposition party is," information & broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said.

"The government would respond appropriately to EC. But the fundamental question is that is BJP supportive of direct beneficiary transfers? They should clarify their stand on the issue. We have maintained that this would make the system transparent and distribution efficient. Is BJP opposed to it? It seems Congress is anti-poverty and BJP anti-poor," Tewari added.

BJP has been objecting over the announcement made last week at Congress headquarters by finance minister P Chidambaram and the rural development minister Jairam Ramesh. The ministers termed the scheme as a game-changer. BJP complained to the poll panel that the scheme was announced ahead of the Gujarat assembly polls, scheduled on December 13 and 17, and hence there was violation of the model code of conduct. BJP also added that four of the 51 districts selected to benefit initially from the scheme were in poll-bound Gujarat.

BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday said that his party was against abolition of the public distribution system, which he claimed had done well in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. "Is Congress serious about it (direct cash transfer scheme)? Have they done their homework well? Let Manish Tewari say why it has come a cropper after it was introduced with fanfare in Rajasthan," Prasad asked.