New Delhi: With Lok Sabha polls just months away, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has marked the official Government of India calendar for 2019 with important dates of his policy announcements.
The soon to be unveiled calender has — for the first time — noted important dates for milestones in the form of policy and welfare measures annou-nced by the BJP government for the citizens over the last approximately five years of its tenure.
With farmers welfare on its mind — after the BJP’s recent wipeout in rural assembly segments of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — January 13 finds the first mention of policy initiative by the Narendra Modi government as it commemorates the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna the next mention is of Start Up India on January 16.
Another farmers welfare measure is Soil Health Card which makes a mark at February 19.
An important measure that affected the armed forces One Rank One Pension, flaunted as one of the major achei-vements of the Modi government, finds a mention at November 7.
Other important dates earmarked in the calender are Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Sukanya Samridhi Yojna (Jan-uary 22), Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission (Februraur 21), Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojna (April 8), Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojna (May 1), Atal Pension Yojna (May 9), Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojna and Digital India (both July 1), Jan Dhan Yojna (August 28), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (October 2), Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojna (October 28), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (November 20) and Bhim App (December 30).
Interestingly, it fails to mention the move of demonetization and GST implementation by the Central government.
Each page depicts scenes from the everyday life that have been afected by the government policies. January focuses on “Ensuring ease of living of all citizens” and lists the welfare measures of the Narendra Modi government which has directly affected the segment like comparison with the Manmohan Singh government’s tenure “inflation fell from a double gdigit of 2010-14 to record low in the last four years”, “medicines made affordable through a nationwide network of 4000 Jan Aushadhi stores” and “income tax exemption limit raised, tax rate reduced from 10 percent to 5 percent for income between Rs 2.5 lakh-5 lakh”.
February depicts the intitives taken by the Modi government for the farming sector, March for Ensuring Women Empowerment, June for rise of India on a global stage and December for encouraging entreprenuership in small
businesses, other months also have examples of these policies on respective pages.
Each page of the 12 months of the year also carries a quote from the Prime Minister along with his picture. Each page also carries a logo and message commemorating 150 years celebrating the Mahatma, marking the 150th birth anniversary of Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi. It is believed that marking such important dates is expected to leave an ever lasting impression on the people. Sources stated that this is the first time that the official government of India celandar has separate marking for important government policy initiatives. “Till now only gazetted and national holidays were marked on the annual calender,” sources added. the calender can also be downloaded from “government of India Calender App”.
Meanwhile, this years the Press Information Bureau is expected to finish the task of distribution of accreditaion cards to journalists ahead of schedule. Sources stated that the process is expected to begin this week amnd is expected to be completed by January 15.
