Sena promises ₹10 meals, farm sops

Meals for ₹10 cooked by women self-help groups; health tests at ₹1; direct cash transfers of ₹10,000 for farmers from weaker sections; scholarships for 15 lakh graduates under Yuva Sarkar Fellowship; better roads in the state under chief minister Shahar Sadak Yojana — these are among the many sops promised by the Shiv Sena in its manifesto for the October 21 Maharashtra Assembly elections. Responding to Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s announcements, the Opposition has asked him whether the ₹10-meal scheme would be like the party’s flop Zunka Bhakar scheme, when it was in power in 1995-99. Thackeray released the party’s manifesto at his residence Matoshree in Bandra, accompanied by his son and Sena leader, Aaditya Thackeray.

In its manifesto, the Sena has also promised to reduce electricity charges for up to 300 units by 30% and stabilise prices of fertilizers and seeds over the next five years to increase farm produce.

For the youth, apart from the Yuva Sarkar Fellowship scholarship, the Sena has promised 2,500 school buses for students from villages and towns, and job reservation in the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) for those under 35 years of age. The Sena has also promised to create a fund to maintain footpaths under municipal corporations and start electric buses in all cities, such as in Mumbai, and set up pilgrimage centres. This would help in organising religious tours to prominent places of worship, such as Ayodhya.

Opposition leaders, however, reminded Thackeray of the controversial Zunka Bhakar scheme when the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was in power between 1995 and 1999. Under the scheme, individuals were given stalls to sell Zunka Bhakar, a Maharashtrian meal of gram flour and jowar, for ₹1 with cash subsidy by the state.

Following complaints that the scheme was being misused to grab land at key places and that the subsidy was being usurped without selling subsidised food, it was discontinued.

“Hope they remember how land was grabbed in the name of Zunka Bhakar stalls,” said Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, while addressing a rally at Barshi, Solapur. Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar, too, referred to the Zunka Bhakar fiasco while criticising the Sena manifesto.

Meanwhile, for Mumbai, the Sena has promised concretisation of the eastern and western express highways with state funds; development of public open spaces; and following up with the Centre with a comprehensive plan for development of the eastern waterfront. HTC