Modi counts the votes his schemes got him

NEW DELHI: As the Modi government prepares for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it is planning to test the effectiveness of the schemes launched by it in the past four and a half years in swinging votes. The government is finalising details of an impact assessment survey to cover as many as 500 districts to see how the schemes helped change lives of people.“For the survey on every scheme, the sample size would be of 1,000 people per district over 500 districts,” said a government official, who did not want to be named. The assessment will be carried out and funded by the respective ministries or public-sector undertakings — if a ministry of PSU is responsible for implementing a particular scheme, then it will foot the bill for the survey covering that scheme. The first survey is likely to cover the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which is a scheme of the ministry of petroleum & natural gas for providing LPG connections to women in below poverty line households.“Three oil PSUs together are likely to carry out a survey on this scheme,” said the government official. The government is in the process of identifying firms that could conduct the surveys, said people in the know. “We are among many who are in discussion with the government,” a senior executive at a research firm said, declining to be named or to comment further.The surveys will begin soon, as the dates for the Lok Sabha elections are likely to be announced in February, triggering the code of conduct that bars the government from taking any key decision or making new announcements. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government has announced many schemes, primarily aiming to improve the living standard of people in rural areas and creating opportunity for youth, since coming to power in mid-2014. These include schemes like the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, Skill India, Ujjwala Yojana and the Jan Dhan Yojana.In the run-up to the ongoing Assembly elections in five states, the BJP has become the number 1 advertiser on television, according to the latest Broadcast Audience Research Council data for the week ended November 16, reported first by ET last Friday. In becoming number 1, the party has beaten advertisers like media service provider Netflix and hotel price comparison site Trivago, in that order. It was also ahead of consumer goods companies such as Hindustan Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser, and ecommerce firm Amazon.

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