New Delhi: BJP chief JP Nadda on Sunday attacked the Congress, saying public service delivery may be an “alien concept” for it as its only interest is to keep “the poor in poverty”.
The reaction came on a day Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi objecting to a government order which, he claimed, stated that senior officers of ranks as high as joint secretary, director and deputy secretary are to be deployed to all 765 districts of the country as “Rath Prabharis” to “showcase achievements of the last nine years of Government of India”.
“It baffles me to see the Congress party has an issue with public servants reaching the grassroots to ensure saturation of schemes,” Nadda said in a post on X, asking, “If this not the basic tenet of governance, what is?” On Saturday, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera had shared on X the order dated October 18 of the Department of Revenue in the finance ministry regarding the nomination of officers of the ranks of joint secretary, director and deputy secretary pertaining to various services to be deployed as “rath prabhari” (special officers) in each of the country’s 765 districts, covering 2.69 lakh gram panchayats.
Nadda said that “it may be an alien concept for the Congress, but public service delivery is the duty of a government.” “If the (Narendra) Modi government wants to ensure saturation of all schemes and ensure all beneficiaries are reached, nobody who has the interest of the poor in their mind can have a problem,” the BJP chief said.
“But, the Congress only has an interest in keeping the poor in poverty and hence, their opposition to the saturation drive,” he said.
The order mentioned an internal order of the agriculture secretary of October 14 regarding showcasing or celebrating the achievements of the last nine years of the Modi government through the “Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra” proposed to be organised across the country for disseminating information, awareness and extending services at the gram panchayat level from November 20 to January 25.
“In order to coordinate for the preparations, planning, execution, monitoring of the Rath Yatra, they have decided to deploy joint secretaries/director/deputy secretaries of Government of India as Rath Prabharis (special officer),” the order read.
Prime Minister Modi has set a target of six months to ensure the full saturation of his government’s welfare schemes, official sources had said on Saturday.
PTI

Press Trust of India