The village and ward volunteers’ system introduced by YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has fetched him a lot of political mileage.
Essentially meant for taking the welfare schemes, like pensions and monthly provisions etc, to the doorsteps of the common man in villages and towns, these volunteers have virtually become a “dalam” at the grassroots level to build up a strong vote bank for the ruling party.
During the recent elections to gram panchayat and municipalities; and just-concluded elections to mandal and zilla parishads, the village volunteers played a major role in turning the voters in favour of the YSRC.
So, in a bid to pamper them further on the occasion of by-election to Tirupati parliamentary seat, Jagan announced cash awards to the best performing village and ward volunteers, so that they would remain loyal to the government and the ruling YSRC.
Out of the total number of 2.67 lakh volunteers, as many as 2.25 lakh volunteers were selected for cash awards on the eve of Ugadi festival. The total cost of the awards is Rs 241 crore and they would be presented in three categories.
Under the Seva Vajra category, as many as 875 volunteers are being given Rs 30,000 cash each. Under Seva Ratna category, 4,000 volunteers would be given Rs 20,000 each in cash and under Seva Mitra category, as many as 2.18 lakh volunteers would get Rs 10,000 each in cash.
Apart from cash, each volunteer would be presented with a certificate, shawl and badge. Jagan presented the awards to a select few at a function held at a private resort in Poranki under Penamuluru constituency in Krishna district on Monday.
He showered praises on all the volunteers stating that they were rendering yeoman services to the people, cutting across caste, religion, region and political affiliation. He called them to ignore criticism against their functioning from some forces.
He announced that the presentation of awards to the volunteers would be done every year on the occasion of Ugadi.
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