The finance minister’s announcement in the Budget that all farmer loans will be waived had made Uttar Pradesh the biggest beneficiary, as more than half of the needy farmers are from the state. In retaliation, and to strengthen her authority over the poorer sections of the electorate, Mayawati has dished out another feel-good scheme — the recruitment of over one lakh sanitation workers in the 1.08 lakh revenue villages of UP.

This was announced in the state Assembly on March 1, barely 24 hours after the Budget was placed in Parliament. In unprecedented haste, the government order was issued on the same day, duly signed by Principal Secretary R K Sharma. It is also understood that Mayawati kept her cards close to her chest as the senior bureaucratese was not aware she was going to make such a gesture.

Sources said the formal Cabinet approval was got on February 29, and Mayawati wasted no time in announcing it the next day. The Cabinet note was prepared by the Panchayatraj department.

The state Budget for 2008-09, presented by Finance Minister Lalji Verma on February 12, had not hinted that such largesse was in the cards. The state Budget had also not mentioned it was putting aside money to be spent on any future project of the BSP government. It is learnt that the sanitation workers will be from the Valmiki community (a Dalit caste), who are traditional supporters of the Congress.

The blueprint of this employment scheme is still on the drawing board, while officials of the Panchayatraj department are scanning provisions of the “United Province Panchayatraj Act 1947”, in order to frame service rules for the recruitment process. According to the government order, as many as 1,08,848 sanitation workers are proposed to be appointed in the pay scale of Rs 2,550 to Rs 3,200. Total annual expenditure in the hiring will be Rs 850 crore.

The Panchayatraj department still does not know whether the scheme will be financed by the annual devolution from the revenue of the state government as recommended by the State Finance Commission or whether the government will provide separate budgetary support. Director of the Panchayat department Ram Bodh Maurya said, “We are framing the rules now. The final decision on the scheme’s funding will be taken by the government.”