Cabinet clears simultaneous polls; about ₹1.8 trillion spending

Simultaneous polls at the central, state and local levels took a step closer to reality on Wednesday, with the Union cabinet approving a top panel’s recommendation in this respect. The government also unwrapped a spending bonanza of nearly ₹1.8 trillion to make fertilizers available at subsidized rates, ensure welfare schemes reach all tribal-majority and backward areas, and support projects in space, biotechnology and entertainment.

Simultaneous elections, as recommended by a panel led by former President Ram Nath Kovind, will be held in two stages—first at the central and state levels, and then at local bodies within 100 days of the national polls—the Union cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided. A common electoral roll will be created for this and an implementation group will be set up to execute this, an official statement said after the meeting.

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Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a press briefing that the panel chaired by Kovind had consulted a broad spectrum of stakeholders including political parties and experts.

“Extensive feedback has shown that there is widespread support for simultaneous elections in the country,” said Vaishnaw. Therefore, the Cabinet accepted the recommendations by unanimous consent, the minister said, adding the recommendations will be discussed in various forums across the country.

Opposition leader Jairam Ramesh said in a social media post that the Congress party continues to oppose this scheme. A letter from the party’s president Mallikarjun Kharge to the committee led by the former President, shared by Ramesh on X, contested the panel’s argument in favour of simultaneous polls.

Quoting official figures, the letter said the cost of the 2014 Lok Sabha election with voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines was ₹3,870 crore, and that people will be willing to consider this small amount as the cost of free and fair elections to uphold democracy.

Backward regions' uplift

Other key decisions of the government include measures for the welfare of backward regions, subsidies for fertilizers, and for protecting farmers’ income while ensuring stable prices for the consumer.

The space programme consists of a manned mission to moon, a mission to Venus, launch of the first module of Bharatiya Antariksha Station and developing a partially reusable, cost effective, commercially viable launch vehicle for India’s space programme.

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The Cabinet also cleared a scheme announced in the budget for the welfare of people in backward districts and tribal majority villages—Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan.

The scheme has a total outlay of ₹79,156 crore, of which states will contribute slightly less than a third. It aims to build houses and infrastructure, improve health, and access to education and skill development.

Farmers' income protection

The government also cleared continuing the Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA), which comprises different schemes to ensure remunerative prices for farmers and stabilize essential commodity prices for consumers.

The scheme will have an outlay of ₹35,000 crore up to 2025-26 during the 15th Finance Commission cycle, the official statement said. This scheme consolidates the Price Support Scheme (PSS), Price Stabilization Fund (PSF), Price Deficit Payment Scheme (PDPS), and Market Intervention Scheme (MIS).

Mint had reported in January that the government was planning to merge the PSF, PSS and the MIS under PM-AASHA, and extend it till 2025-26.

Notably, from the 2024-25 season, 25% of the national production of pulses, oilseeds, and copra will be procured at minimum support price, with 100% procurement of tur, urad, and masur.

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Also, government guarantee for procurement has been raised to ₹45,000 crore, enabling more purchases through National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (Nafed) and National Cooperative Consumer’s Federation of India Ltd. (NCCF). The PSF scheme will also stabilize prices of pulses and onions by maintaining buffer stocks, with interventions in other crops such as tomatoes.

MIS will increase its coverage for perishable horticulture crops from 20% to 25%, and a new payment method will directly transfer funds to farmers’ accounts, ensuring support while addressing consumer affordability.

To subsidize fertilizers to farmers, Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) of ₹24,476 crore was approved for the rabi season of 2024, which runs from October 2024 to March 2025. Subsidy amount takes into account the trends in international prices of the commodity.

“We all know that there is disruption in supply chains globally, in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine region; so, the market price has gone up. This subsidy scheme aims to reduce the financial burden on farmers and promote balanced use of fertilizers,” said Vaishnaw.

Three for space

For three space-related initiatives, the Cabinet approved ₹12,363 crore. This includes Chandrayaan-4, the manned mission to the Moon.

“This is the biggest step as it will demonstrate technologies to come back to Earth from Moon and to bring samples. The Venus orbiter mission has also been approved. This will revolve around Venus,” said the minister. Vaishnaw said approval is granted for the first Bharatiya Antariksha Station at a cost of ₹20,000 crore.

Anil Prabhakar, director of the Department of Space (DoS)-affiliated Physical Research Laboratory said that one of the key aspects of Chandrayaan-4 will be the lunar soil collection and its subsequent flight back to earth.

“There is a significant engineering challenge to solve when it comes to being able to launch back from the lunar surface, escape lunar gravity, and come back to earth,” Prabhakar said.

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The findings of Isro’s previous Moon mission were published in peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature last month.

Meanwhile, the production of the NGLV launch vehicle, which received the second-biggest budget allocation on Wednesday’s space approvals, is expected to carry “maximum participation from the Indian industry”, the Department of Space said in a statement.

Anil Kumar Bhatt, director-general of space industry body, Indian Space Association (ISpA), said that the upcoming central space projects will “help the private sector work on world-class space missions, with Isro anchoring them”.

Chaitanya Giri, space fellow at think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF), said that with the NGLV, “the industry may be invested in the entire material procurement, supply chain management, rocket engineering, testing facilities, manufacturing units, assembly and integration, and launch operations”.

Gireesh Chandra Prasad, Puja Das and Shouvik Das contributed to this story.