AP: Congress manifesto vows to 'reset' govt priorities

Releasing its manifesto, the Congress today launched a scathing attack on the "nine-years of misrule"" by the Chandrababu Naidu government, the state Congress party vowed to reset government priorities "� with agriculture, irrigation and power as main thrust areas for the sustainable growth of Andhra Pradesh.

The Congress has promised to create one lakh hectares of irrigation potential each year, indicating that it would take up more irrigation projects apart from completing ongoing projects.

The manifesto also promised the revival of sick and closed units as a top agenda for the industrial sector if the Congress was voted to power.

Beside the promise of free power to agriculture sector, the much awaited Congress election manifesto released here also proposed the inclusion of new castes into BC and SC and ST categories with a proportional hike in the respective quotas along with providing BC status to Muslims.

The Congress has also promised to provide 20 kg rice for Rs 3.50 per kg to the single, destitute, widowed and hapless women, increase old age pension from Rs 75 to Rs 225. Loans to farmers, DWCRA women groups and youth were promised at three per cent rate of interest.

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 equity would be the main plank for the party.

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

The manifesto released by PCC president 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 the farmers of command areas, which receive water through canal system at nominal cess, and upland areas where the farmers need to make huge investments in borewells and pumps.

As a high profile poll plank for the rural areas, the manifesto promised free power to the agriculture operations mainly in upland areas and waiver dues of power bills incurred on agricultural services along with 12 to 15 units of free power supply per month to poor households which is sufficient for lighting one bulb.

Targeting the woman voters, 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.

Though silent on the issue of containing corruption in public life and enquiry into the alleged corrupt practices and scams under Naidu's government with special reference to the utilisation of loans borrowed by the government as frequently asserted by Congress leaders.

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 the society such as farmers, youth, women, minorities.

The manifesto did not specify any allocation nor did it suggest any percentage of resources will 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 further investments.

An apex Non-farm Sector Board was also promised, which will dovetail all non-agricultural activities in rural areas for expanding rural employment opportunities for the youth. It has also proposed the launch on a pilot basis the 'Shramik Banks' concept, which is presently in vogue in Kerala, to provide bridge finance to the farmers in the form of direct wage payments to labourers.

With regard to the demand for the separate statehood for Telangana, the manifesto observed: "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 the various "failures and mishandling 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 1995-03.

The manifesto also pointed out that agricultural GSDP 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.