Now silent on Bihar, Election Commission had halted two welfare schemes in Tamil Nadu during polls

The Election Commission of India’s (EC) silence on the payment of ₹ 10,000 each to women beneficiaries of the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana (MMRY) in Bihar, where Assembly elections are ongoing, is in stark contrast to the stand taken by the Commission in Tamil Nadu under similar circumstances in the past.

MMRY, a State-funded assistance scheme that aims to cover 75 lakh women, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 26. Ten days later, on October 6, the poll body announced its decision to conduct the election for 243 Assembly constituencies in the state in two phases – November 6 and 11.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress leaders protested the implementation of the scheme, which, according to them, was against the Model Code of Conduct.

In Tamil Nadu, on two occasions in the last 20-odd years, poll authorities have reacted heavily to the implementation of two welfare schemes, one for farmers and the other for beneficiaries of the free color television (TV) distribution initiative.

In March 2003, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) regime led by Jayalalithaa decided to withdraw the free electricity supply scheme to farmers and cottagers. It has chosen to adopt a cash support scheme for 9.4 lakh small and marginal farmers, where ₹ 500 will be paid twice a year to those operating pump sets of three horsepower capacity and ₹ 625 twice a year to those with pumps of 5 hp and above, ₹ 100 per cottage dweller annually. All consumers were required to pay their electricity bills, and those eligible among them would be refunded via postal money order in two installments in October and April.

The cash support scheme was later extended to the rest of the farmers and an order was issued before the poll schedule was announced. Hindu As senior farmer leader MR Sivasamy said on May 6, 2004. However, on March 22, 2004, the then Chief Electoral Officer Mrutyunjay Sarangi, responding to the statement of the District Collector, sent a circular to all Tahsildars advising them to postpone the payment of remittances until the election process was completed.

In early March 2011, soon after the poll panel had published the Assembly election schedule, it had directed the District Collectors to stop the distribution of free color TVs until the end of the polls. This was despite the DMK government’s then pet project, the color TV scheme, being in place since September 2006. Before the Model Code of Conduct comes into force, around 1.62 crore sets have been distributed and around 9 lakh more sets will be given out.

Although both the plans were in the implementation stage long before the poll schedule was announced, the poll panel stopped them.