Guwahati, Sep 19 (IANS) Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah on Thursday announced that if the opposition party comes to power in the state, they will give monthly assistance of Rs 3000 to all eligible women irrespective of caste, creed and political affiliation.

Borah criticised the BJP government’s ambitious scheme “Orunodoi” program - where women are given cash benefits of Rs 1250 per month as the third instalment of this initiative was launched on Thursday by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

“Sarma has been giving Orunodoi to a particular group of women who have joined the BJP. Nowadays, people do not come to attend BJP ministers’ program and that is why the ruling party leaders do the form fill up kind of things for getting Orunodoi scheme during their public meeting to attract some audience,” Borah said.

Borah further said that when Congress comes to power, the Orunodoi program will be discontinued.

“We will scrap the Orunodoi scheme and a new initiative will be launched by the Congress government where all eligible women in the state will get financial assistance of Rs 3000 per month. It will be credited on the 9th of every month. The name of the initiative will be Na-Lakhimi program,” he added.

The Congress leader also claimed that the Na-Lakhimi program would be free from any bias on the basis of caste, creed and religion.

Notably, Sarma launched the third version of the ‘Orunodoi’ initiative - a flagship program of the BJP government in Assam where more than 37 lakh females are entitled to get financial support of Rs 1250 per month.

Chief Minister said that ‘Orunodoi’ has successfully served as a model for many states in the country. He moreover mentioned that a number of governments have started similar programs in their states in line with the Assam government’s ‘Orunodoi’ initiative.

He claimed that Assam was the first state in the whole nation to initiate a cash transfer initiative exclusively for women and that too in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sarma earlier said: “In 2020, Assam launched Orunodoi and became one of the first states to launch a cash transfer scheme exclusively for women. Since then, this scheme has been expanded. What’s best this has served as a model for many states to replicate such programs.”