Print Media of India – 1) 4 Aug.14 -Schemes 650 named after Nehru-Gandhi dynasty

GOOD MOVE by New Delhi : In what could be the first step towards replacing the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty names from a plethora of government schemes, the Modi government has proposed changing the Indira Awas Yojna (IAY), the rural housing scheme to National Gramin Awas Mission (GRAM).

The proposed change in the nomenclature of the 29 year old scheme, launched by the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1985, is being done by  upgrading it into a mission with a revised target and additional cost.

According to the proposal GRAM will be set up in the form of an autonomous registered society to implement and monitor the scheme at the national level. “Changing the name of Indira Awas Yojna, the scheme associated with the former Prime Minister India Gandhi is a first step towards replacing other schemes associated with the Gandhi family,” a source in the government told HT.

There are more than 600 government schemes named after the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Before the polls, the BJP had indicated that if they came to power they would review the schemed named after three generations of the Gandhi dynasty. A month before the Lok Sabha elections results were declared, senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu on April 16 had attacked the congress for “glorification of only one family.” “Congress launched 650 schemes in the name of three personalities — Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi — giving an impression that no other leader other than one family did any good for the country,” he had said while speaking to reporters in Patna.