Priyanka Gandhi took to Twitter to applaud her brother and Congress party president Rahul Gandhi's announcement of providing Rs 72,000 per annum to 20% of India's poorest. She said that the best part about Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) is that it will provide women with steady money. "It makes me very happy that through the NYAY scheme women will add Rs 72,000 every year in their accounts," she tweeted.
On Monday, Rahul Gandhi announced the minimum income scheme, which, he said would benefit around 25 crore people. He added that this scheme will be implemented if the Congress party is voted to power in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. "This is a ground breaking idea. It is a historic day for India and the final assault on poverty is beginning. We will wipe out poverty from the country," he said.
"The Congress party guarantees that 20 per cent families belonging to poorest of the poor category in India will be given Rs 72,000 each annually, to help provide them minimum income of Rs 12,000 per month," Gandhi said during the press conference.
However, the announcement created quite some confusion as the Congress president explained the methodology and said that the government would give a 'top-up' to the beneficiary families. If a family earned Rs 6,000 per month, the government would give Rs 6,000 to help the family reach the minimum income mark of Rs 12,000. If the family earned Rs 7,000, the government would top-up Rs 5,000 to make it Rs 12,000.
A day later, on Tuesday, Congress spokesperson explained in further details and clarified that NYAY was not a top-up scheme. "There was some confusion yesterday. This is not a top-up scheme. All 20 per cent families will get Rs 72,000 a year. I repeat, this is not a top-up scheme," Surjewala said at a press conference, further adding, "The Congress party will get this amount credited to the bank accounts of the women of beneficiary families".
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