 "(From left) Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar and others during the Maharashtra Swabhiman rally in Mumbai on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI)")
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Opposition alliance in Maharashtra unveiled “five guarantees” for the upcoming Assembly polls on Wednesday , which include a monthly allowance of Rs 3,000 and free travel in state transport buses for women.
It said it would waive farm loans of up to Rs 300,000, and provide Rs 50,000 as financial assistance to farmers who have been regular in the repayment of loans.
Its other “guarantees” include Rs 4,000 monthly allowance to unemployed youth in the state, up to Rs 2.5 million health insurance cover to all families and providing essential medicines free of cost in government-run hospitals.
It also committed to conduct a caste census and remove the 50 per cent cap on reservations. MVA’s top leaders announced the “guarantees” at a public meeting in Mumbai.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, whose party is a constituent of the MVA, told the gathering that the first decision of the MVA government would be to scrap the Dharavi Redevelopment Project.
The project is a joint venture between the state government and the Adani Group.
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Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi alleged that the central government misused probe agencies to destabilise the MVA government with the intent to “benefit the country’s top two-three billionaires”.
Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti government in Maharashtra handed the Dharavi land to a billionaire.
He said during the tenure of the BJP-led government in the state, several big ticket projects that would have generated half a million jobs have been “snatched” from Maharashtra and taken to Gujarat, including the Tata-Airbus (C-295) facility, and others.
Congress president Mallaikarjun Kharge and Nationalist Congress Party (SP) president Sharad Pawar also addressed the rally.
The polling for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly is scheduled for November 20, and the counting is scheduled on November 23.
The Mahayuti government launched the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojna, under which eligible women are entitled to Rs 1,500 monthly allowance, with the promise that it would double it if it returns to power. However, Gandhi said the BJP is “hoodwinking” the people of Maharashtra by offering the cash transfer.
“According to our calculations, the BJP government snatches Rs 90,000 from the pockets of each family of Maharashtra and puts it in the pockets of Adani and Ambani,” Gandhi said.
He said that people are burdened by increasing inflation, including the increase in the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas. He spoke of how demonetisation and GST broke the back of small and medium businesses, which are the primary drivers of employment generation.
Kharge said the Congress governments in Telangana and Karnataka have delivered on the “guarantees” that it promised to the people, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “reneged” on the promises he made, including generating 20 million jobs and doubling farm incomes.
The NCP led by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti government, unveiled its manifesto. According to a PTI report, it promised to increase the Ladki Bahin scheme's monthly financial assistance to Rs 2,100 from the present Rs 1,500.
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