Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday announced five more guarantees, including a law on the continuation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), and free laptop computers or tablets for government college students, if the Congress wins the upcoming state polls. The senior Congress leader also continued to attack the Union government over Thursday’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) action against his son Vaibhav Gehlot and party’s state chief Govind Singh Dotasra, accusing it of using central agencies to target political rivals.
Addressing a press conference in Jaipur, Gehlot said that they will introduce a law to ensure that a new government is not able to roll back OPS. Rajasthan reverted to OPS in 2022.
“If BJP comes to power in Rajasthan, they will roll back OPS… , we will pass a law in the assembly when we form the government… so that even in future if there is a new government, they are not able to roll back [OPS].
OPS guaranteed inflation and pay commission indexed pension payouts without any contribution from the employee. The new pension scheme (NPS) is based on employee and employer contributions and the returns are market-linked. In the past year, a number of non-BJP states such as Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand , have moved from NPS to OPS.
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Gehlot said that the Congress will also provide free laptops or tablets to first-year students of government colleges.
“Students who will take admission in state government-run colleges… they will get a laptop or a tablet in the first year … so that they can learn new techniques and learn about the world of IT,” he said.
The CM also promised an insurance cover of ₹15 lakh perhousehold for damages due to natural disasters, purchase of cow dung at ₹2 per kg under the ‘Godhan’ scheme, and English medium school education for students. On Wednesday, the Rajasthan chief minister announced two other guarantees — the expansion of the state’s subsidised cylinder scheme to 10.5 million families and an annual honorarium of ₹10,000 to women head of families if they win the elections.
Polling for the 200 assembly seats in Rajasthan will be held on November 25 and the votes will be counted on December 3.
BJP leader and leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Rajendra Rathore, said the government was making a series of false promises in the name of guarantees to keep its dwindling support base intact.
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“Congress showed imaginary dreams of development to the public five years ago, but the public got tired of waiting for it to take place on the ground. Voters have spent five years in misery due to misgovernance of the Congress. They will not fall prey to such election guarantees,” he said.
During the press conference, Gehlot claimed the Congress has become synonymous with “trust” in the state and accused the BJP-led central government of misusing central agencies to target the Opposition.
“What’s happening in the country? Democracy is under threat. The Constitution is in tatters. ED, Income Tax and CBI are following instructions (of the central government)…They have become a political weapon for the past nine years and only raid leaders of the Opposition,” he said. Gehlot’s comments came a day after ED conducted a raid at the home of Dotasra in connection with an alleged paper leak case, and issued a notice to Vaibhav Gehlot, for alleged contraventions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in a separate case that dates back to September.
“A chief minister recently said that more than dogs, it’s the ED that is roaming in the country. What could be a bigger misfortune than this?” he said, alluding to Chhattisgarh chief minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel’s comment in August after frequent raids by central agencies in his state over alleged scams.
Dotasara said that he was not bogged down by the ED raid and was willing to face any investigation. “I am not afraid of investigation. When Special Operations Group was investigating the paper leak, I told the Chief Minister to speed up the probe. The Congress and I are not afraid of these raids,” he said.
The BJP has maintained that the agencies carry out investigations independently, saying that Congress leaders should not be afraid of the raids if they have nothing to hide.
