Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra

• Context (PIB | IE | TH): During his two-day visit to Varanasi, the Prime Minister will participate in the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, laying the foundation stone for 37 projects worth Rs 19,155 crore.
• Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra is the largest-ever outreach initiative of the Government of India.

• It will cover 2.60 lakh Gram Panchayats and 4000+ urban local bodies nationwide by January 25, 2024.
• It will promote and monitor flagship central schemes like Ayushman Bharat, Ujjwala Yojana, PM Suraksha Bima, PM SVANidhi, etc.
• It was launched on November 15 from Khunti, Jharkhand.
• People can take the ‘Sankalp’ (pledge) by filling out a form on the scheme’s website to download a certificate.

Aims of Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra

• It aims to reach out to eligible but unreached beneficiaries.
• Yatra involves the dissemination of information.
• “Meri Kahani Meri Jubani” initiative envisages raising awareness through personal stories.
• It targets the enrollment of potential beneficiaries of central schemes.

Issues With The Move

• Politicisation of the bureaucracy and the military: Joint Secretaries, Directors, and Deputy Secretaries will be appointed nodal officers for the roadshow. The Ministry of Defence is setting up ‘selfie points’ at prominent locations.
• Outreach is limited to nine years: The outreach is only about achievements of the last nine years that correspond to the two terms of the ruling government that began in 2014.
• Partisan: The directives force bureaucrats into partisan roles to further the ruling party’s interests.

Way Forward

• India’s constitutional governance scheme envisages the separation of power among the three arms of the state: the executive, the judiciary, and the legislature.
• There is also a line of separation between the bureaucracy and the military from the political executive, and thus, they need to be insulated from partisan politics.