The Trinamool Congress’ announcement of a monthly ₹5,000 to one woman per family in Goa has sparked a war of words between P Chidambaram and TMC MP Mahua Moitra with the former finance minister saying the scheme deserves a ‘Nobel Prize in Economics’.
Here is the math that deserves the Nobel Prize for Economics. A monthly grant of Rs. 5,000 to a woman in 3.5 lakh households in Goa will cost ₹175 crore a month. That is Rs. 2100 crore a year. It is a “small” sum for the State of Goa that had an outstanding debt of Rs. 23,473 crore at the end of March 2020. God bless Goa! Or should it be God save Goa?” Chidambaram tweeted early on Sunday.
Moitra was quick to hit back saying that the scheme was “perfectly doable” explaining that it comes to 6-8% of the Goa Budget.
“Yes sir @PChidambaram_IN ₹5000 to 3.5 lakh Goan households = ₹2100 crores is 6-8% of total budget which is perfectly doable. Good economics in [a] depressed post Covid-19 scenario requires putting cash in hand & liquidity into [the] system,” Moitra tweeted.
The party handle too responded to the Congress leader.
“You can continue doing the Math @PChidambaram_INji, while we are busy immersing ourselves in serving the people of Goa since that’s the need of the hour. Goa deserves good & sensible governance, & it’s time someone provided that,” the AITC Goa official handle tweeted.
On Saturday, the Trinamool announced the scheme which they labelled the Griha Laxmi Scheme promising one woman per household will be given ₹5,000 per month covering all the estimated 3.50 lakh families in Goa.
“The monthly benefit of Rs. 5,000 will be made available through direct benefit cash transfer. 3.51 lakh households will be covered under the scheme. This is going to be universal coverage — you don’t have to belong to any backward caste or community, you don’t have to belong to any economically deprived section. It is going to be for everyone,” Moitra had announced.
“The budgetary allocation for this is going to be between ₹1500 to 2,000 crore which is 6-8% of Goa’s budget,” she added.
Goa already has a scheme that was begun by former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in 2012 called the Griha Aadhar scheme which gives a family ₹1500 per month but is offered only to the economically weaker section of Goan society that is — the gross income of the husband and wife, taken together should not exceed ₹3-lakh per annum to be eligible for the scheme.
Earlier, the Aam Aadmi Party in Goa promised to hike the existing monthly dole by 1,000 Rupees from ₹1500 to 2,500.
The TMC’s announcement was branded a gimmick by the ruling BJP saying that it was not really intended at empowering women but only at buying votes.
