Key Points
So, drawing any conclusion on the relative performance of states based on election results is unlikely to yield fair conclusions..
This has led to an expansion of benefits by way of free bus tickets to women, revival of the old pension scheme for government employees, and cash transfers to unemployed youth, apart from subsidies on cooking gas, housing, etc, and also cash transfers for marriages, births and so on..
Fiscal prudence, however, hardly finds any mention in the discussion on cash transfers, with governments, both state and central, increasing such programmes as well as the quantum of money..
The issue is not one of redistributive transfers, be it in the form of cash or in kind (such as free grains under the NFSA), but their relative priority vis--vis government expenditure on investment and other key programmes..
Cash transfers to women are welcome, but there is hardly any increase in the financial allocation for essential schemes such as maternity benefit or the Integrated Child Development Scheme..
