Raj govt suspends free smartphone scheme of Gehlot regime, stalls registration for free power

Jaipur, July 22 (IANS) The Bhajan Lal Sharma-led Rajasthan government has suspended the free smartphone scheme as well as stopped the registration of people under another welfare scheme which provided 100 units of free electricity launched both by the previous Congress government by the then Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
The Rajasthan government has clarified its stance by giving a written reply in the Assembly in response to different queries asked about both welfare schemes.The BJP government has said that the free smartphone scheme has been suspended since the Code of Conduct came into effect during last year’s Assembly elections. However, a final decision regarding this scheme will be taken later.Reacting to Congress MLA Vikas Chaudhary’s query about the total number of free smartphones distributed till January 2024, the BJP government said: “A total of 24,56,001 women were distributed free smartphones through Direct Benefit Transfer. This project was suspended from October 9, 2023, as soon as the Code of Conduct for the Assembly elections came into effect.”On the question of continuing this scheme further or stalling it, the BJP government has said that further decisions on the smartphone scheme will be taken after examining the benefits to women and people.In response to the query of BJP MLA Radheshyam from the Bairwa-Atru Assembly constituency, State Energy Minister Hiralal Nagar in a written reply said: “The benefit of the Chief Minister Free Electricity Scheme (domestic subsidy) of the previous government is being given only to those domestic consumers who have registered a domestic connection with the Jan Aadhar. In this scheme, 98.23 lakh domestic consumers were registered from June 2023 to March 2024. All consumers who got registered with the scheme were given the due benefit of the scheme.”On the question of giving the benefit of the scheme to the deprived consumers, the Energy Minister said: “Under this scheme, there is a provision to give the benefit of the scheme only on registration of one domestic connection with the Jan Aadhar. The remaining domestic consumers, who did not get their registrations done, were either ineligible or were not willing to take the grant.”–IANSarc/khz