Cong launches broadside against Naidu

Manifesto promises free power, revival of closed units

Releasing its manifesto, the Congress today launched a scathing attack on the "nine-year of misrule" of the N Chandrababu Naidu government.

The Congress vowed to reset government priorities - with agriculture, irrigation and power as main thrust areas for the sustainable growth of Andhra Pradesh.

The party promised to create 100,000 hectares irrigation potential each year, indicating that it would take up more irrigation projects apart from completing ongoing ones. The manifesto also promised that the Congress would take up the revival of sick and closed units as a priority, if voted to power.

Beside the promise of free power to the agricultural sector, the much awaited Congress election manifesto also proposed the inclusion of new castes into the Backward Caste, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories, with a proportional hike in the respective quotas along with providing a Backward Caste status to Muslims.

It has also promised to provide 20 kg of rice at Rs 3.50 per kg to single, destitute, widowed and hapless women and increase old age pension from Rs 75 to Rs 225. Farmers, women groups and the youth were promised loans at a 3 per cent rate.

In a clear effort to contrast the party's image with the "development agenda" plank of the Naidu government, the Congress has claimed that growth with social justice and equality would be the main foundation of the party.

"Due to the lopsided pro-rich economic and social policies pursued by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government, there has been pauperism in a large section of the society with ever-widening gaps in incomes of the rich and poor, leading to an unprecedented spurt in extremist activities in the state," the manifesto said.

The manifesto released by the state Congress chief D Srinivas has promised among several other things, to set up an agricultural technology mission under the chairmanship of the chief minister, to improve farm productivity by at least 40 per cent.

Justifying the promise of free power to farmers, he said that the decision is intended to bring parity between farmers of command areas, which receive water through the canal system at a nominal cess, and upland areas where the farmers need to make huge investments in borewells and pumps.

As a high-profile poll plank for rural areas, the manifesto promised free power for agriculture operations mainly in the upland areas and waiver of power bill dues incurred in agricultural services along with 12 to 15 units of free power supply per month to poor households""this would be enough for lighting one bulb.

The Congress has vowed to enforce a ban on liquor consumption in the state.

Though it attached several strings to this promise, like "phased manner" and in consonance with the "consciousness levels" of the people.

The 30-page manifesto has mainly concentrated on issues that it believes need to be given a fillip for growth in core sectors like agriculture, industry and employment potential with specific packages and schemes to each of the sections of society such as farmers, youth, women and minorities.

The manifesto did not specify any allocation nor suggest any per centage of resources that would be spent on those sectors. Additionally, there was no mention of resource mobilisation for meeting these priorities.

"There will not be any problem with regard to revenue mobilisation. And the allocations and other specifics are a matter of responsibility and prerogative of the elected government," D Srinivas said while reacting to the question of there being no mention of mobilisation of resources in the manifesto.

The manifesto has also proposed the creation of a separate irrigation and power finance corporation for resource mobilisation.

Significant among the propositions made in the manifesto were the establishment of an Industrial Rehabilitation board, to essentially put to use all the assets in the sick units for productive purposes and create employment and revenue generation without much of a further investment.

An apex non-farm sector board was also promised, which would devote all non-agricultural activities in rural areas towards expanding rural employment opportunities for the youth.

It has also proposed the launch, on a pilot basis, of the 'Shramik Banks' concept, which is presently in vogue in Kerala, to provide bridge finance to farmers in the form of direct wage payments to labourers.

With regard to the demand for a separate statehood for Telangana, the manifesto observed that, "The Congress party recognises the growing emotions and aspirations of the people of the Telangana region". It suggested that the whole matter could be best addressed by another States' Reorganisation Commission which would go into all the issues involved.

The manifesto, while highlighting various failures and mis-handling of the economy by the ruling TDP, has pointed out that the state government had spent only Rs 16,368 crore on capital expenditure out of the borrowings of Rs 46,000 crore during 1995-2003.

The manifesto also noted that agricultural Gross State Domestic Product had fallen from Rs 13,305 crore to Rs 11,958 crore, which indicated that agricultural income had come down drastically during the nine-year rule of the TDP.