Rahul wants govt to invest more in agriculture sector

Ahead of the February 16 Interim Budget, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Future Challenges Group’ today identified investment in agriculture as a key area for policy-makers. In a closed-door meeting, the group also supported creation of more “non-agricultural” jobs in rural areas.

The group is compiling a report which will be submitted to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

This was the group’s first meeting after the Congress launched its Lok Sabha poll campaign last Sunday. Today’s meeting discussed current economic issues along with organisational problems.

According to sources, the group felt that in the backdrop of the current economic slowdown and job losses, agriculture was a key growth area and concluded that “we need to invest more in agriculture”.

The group’s conclusion comes at a time when the total public and private investment in agriculture and allied sectors as a share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has come down from 9.6 per cent in 2004-05 to 2.3 per cent in 2006-07.

Congress’ chief spokesperson Veerappa Moily, however, refused to give details of the discussion and said: “We discussed important national issues ahead of the polls.”

Along with agriculture, the group also laid emphasis on creation of rural jobs. The UPA government has already launched its flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) schemes to provide 100 days of employment to the rural poor in the non-agricultural season. The NREGA has generated employment to around 37 million households till date. Today, Gandhi’s group concluded that generating “non agricultural jobs in rural areas” needed more attention.

Top sources in the government have already indicated that the coming Interim Budget’s focus will remain on social sector and creation of more employment opportunities.

In the organisational areas, apart from selection of right candidates for various elections, the Congress think-tank also admitted that the party would have to evolve strategies to “pacify failed aspirants” for the poll tickets. It also called for devising of methods to increase involvement of youths in the voting process and better connection between the voters and the party.