Uttar Pradesh’s performance on development programmes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) have trailed those of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The scheme promises 100 days of employment per year to one member of every family living below the poverty line. Both Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have provided employment for around 60-70 days. UP has been able to manage only 30-35 days. And even this achievement, claims Pandey, is suspect because labour contractors and local government officials misuse the scheme. UP also became the first state in the country to offer an unemployment dole, of Rs500 a month. The political message, said Pandey, was that you had to work to get a grant from the Centre (the NREGS is a Central scheme), but the state government didn’t even ask you to do that.
The state still has Noida’s roads and Agra’s malls (where, according to Ahmed, shoppers can buy a Marks and Spencer’s tie), but these aren’t too far away from the debt-ridden Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh where, using the Right to Information Act that mandates that governments and government departments share information with the public, Pandey discovered that a person kills himself every day. With a turnout of 47%, Noida’s voters may be indifferent to the elections, but Bundelkhand’s, who will go to polls later this week, care deeply about it.
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