Congress plans to involve Indians in making NYAY Logo

New Delhi, March 28: The Congress is planning to involve Indians in making the logo of Nyuntam Aay Yojna (NYAY), Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) scheme.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday announced that 20% of the poorest families in the country would be annually given Rs. 72,000 each under the NYAY, if his party would voted to power.

The Congress will give details of the NYAY in its Lok Sabha election manifesto.

The manifesto committee of Congress headed by former finance minister P Chidambaram has been working on the list of poll promises for the past several months.

The sources tell OneIndia that the Congress is eyeing to explore all options to make the NYAY a hit before the elections.

The Congress is also planning to involve common Indians in making the logo of NYAY. Once the details of the NYAY are out in the election manifesto then people will be invited to suggest their ideas about the logo of NYAY, say sources.

The idea behind this exercise is to make Minimum Income Guarantee famous among masses, add sources.

It is notable that Rahul Gandhi has termed NYAY as a final assault on poverty and said that the implementation of the scheme is possible within the budget.

Angus Deaton, the British economist who won the Nobel Prize in 2015, and French economist Thomas Piketty are believed to be advising the Congress on NYAY. The other people rumoured to be consulted on corners of NYAY scheme are economist Abhijit Banerjee and former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan.

Though the Congress is buoyant about the scheme and believes that it may ride into power, the economists have said the scheme if implemented, would have catastrophic effects on the Indian economy.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley has called the scheme a "bluff" and an attempt by the Congress to cheat the poor again.

Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar has said Rahul Gandhi's promise of providing Rs 72,000 annually to five crore families will create strong incentives against work and bust fiscal discipline.

There is already subsidy outlay of Rs 3.34 lakh for existing schemes in 2019-20. The additional potential outlay of Rs 3.6 lakh crore for NYAY will increase the subsidy burden to Rs 6.94 lakh.

However, Chidambaram is confident that the NYAY scheme will cost 1.8% of the GDP at any given time, and will not cross 2% of the GDP.