Anna Bhagya scheme, MGNREGA helped poor during COVID-19, says Karnataka CM

Siddaramaiah said that he had experienced pangs of hunger and poverty during childhood and this made him introduce the scheme with the objective of ensuring that poor did not go hungry

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the Anna Bhagya scheme and MGNREGA helped the poor and the lower middle class in the State to cope with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and bailed them out of distress.

He was speaking after releasing a book titled Guarantee Schemes: Security and Welfare for the Poor, edited by D. Srinivas Managalli, at Manasagangotri campus of the University of Mysore here on Saturday.

Memories of childhood

Mr. Siddaramaiah said that he had experienced pangs of hunger and poverty during childhood and this made him introduce the scheme with the objective of ensuring that poor did not go hungry. He said the constituent Assembly speeches delivered on November 25, 1949, was the source of his inspiration for the guarantee schemes. Ensuring opportunities for those deprived of it will help build a strong and equal society, he added.

Referring to Buddha and Basavanna, Mr. Siddaramaiah said they too spoke of an equal and egalitarian society and were the source of inspiration for all welfare schemes launched by him.

Beneficiaries should speak

He said the poor and the lower middle class were bailed out of a possible distress situation during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to the various welfare measures of the government, including Anna Bhagya and MGNREGA. Hence, the beneficiaries should speak up and be more vocal about it, he said.

Attributing inequality in society to the caste system, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the various programmes and guarantee schemes are an effort to bridge inequality. He said: ‘’Wherever I go, people have thanked the Congress for introducing such welfare measures.”

High in HDI

M. Chandra Poojary, director, State Higher Education Academy, Dharwad, said welfare programmes for the poor launched in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala rank high in Human Development Index (HDI) while States that don’t have such free schemes like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh rank much lower on HDI parameters.

Purushottam Bilimale, chairman, Kannada Development Authority, said the guarantee schemes helped the poor fight economic distress when GDP and the economic growth of the country was faltering and unemployment was high.

Published - September 28, 2024 08:53 pm IST