Chennai: The minimum income guarantee scheme will be rolled out in phases that will cover five crore beneficiary families, said senior Congress leader P Chidambaram today. He also indicated that his party’s manifesto will likely be released 2 April.
Addressing mediapersons here, Chidambaram, a former Finance Minister, said, “The scheme will be rolled out in phases and cover five crore families in phases. Our calculation shows that it will not cross two per cent of the GDP, it will be 1.8 per cent of the GDP at any given point of time.”
His comments came after Congress president Rahul Gandhi, on Monday, said 20 per cent families in poorest of the poor category will be given Rs 72,000 each annually as a minimum income.
Chidambaram said ‘enough’ economists and experts on the subject had been consulted and that they broadly agreed that India has the capacity to implement the scheme. Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said the implementation of the scheme is possible, he added.
However, despite the possibility, Chidambaram said the scheme has to be tested on the field and then rolled out. An expert committee will be set up for its implementation and it will design the scheme at every stage and “we will consult the committee before we move to the next stage,” he said.
Like the Minimum Wages Act which stipulates minimum wages, every family should have minimum income and the government cannot provide the entire income and that was why the scheme is called the ‘Minimum Income Support Scheme,’ Chidambaram quipped.
He said his party was aware of the challenges involved in implementing the scheme and added that “we will overcome these challenges.”
“We will insist that every family should open an account in the name of the woman in the family and the money will be transferred to her account,” he explained.
Poverty eradication should be accepted as an “aram (meaning dharma), it is dharma, it is a moral duty of every government in the 21st century,” he said.
The senior party leader stated that his party should not be solely blamed for not eradicating poverty. “To eradicate poverty, a minimum income is needed, otherwise poverty will not end,” he said.
Chidambaram also said when the 100 days employment scheme (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) was implemented in 2009, BJP leader Arun Jaitley had said it was not possible to implement it. “Jaitley, however, forgot to say that doubling the income of farmers was not possible when Modi announced it,” he said. “MNREGA eradicated hunger and the income scheme will root out poverty,” he declared.