After a political row over its massive outreach campaign to highlight central schemes, the government on Thursday said the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra scheduled for launch on November 15 will skip the five poll-bound states.
Information and Broadcasting Secretary Apurva Chandra said a decision has been taken to drop the word ‘rath’ to refer to the vehicles publicising government schemes across 2.55 lakh gram panchayats and nearly 18,000 locations in urban areas.
“There is no plan to start the ‘Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra’ in election-bound states where the model code of conduct is in place. In poll-bound states the yatra will start when the model code of conduct is lifted,” Chandra said.
“Henceforth, we will not use the word ‘rath’ for the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) vans,” Chandra said, dismissing criticism that government officials were being drafted for a political campaign.
Assembly polls in five states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Mizoram — have been announced. Voting will take place in the states on different dates in November and the results will be announced on December 3.
Chandra said the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra (VBSY), which will be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Khunti in Jharkhand, is purely a government programme and it would be incorrect to attribute political motives to it.
“I disagree with the criticism that government officers are doing political work,” Chandra said, asserting that the suggestion for the campaign to ensure saturation coverage of government schemes was made during a meeting of secretaries in Dharamsala in June last year.
The yatra will be flagged off on November 15, the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Birsa Munda which is celebrated as Janajatiya Gaurav Divas. It will conclude on the eve of Republic Day on January 25. The yatra will be launched in urban areas a week later.