Congress manifesto promises 33%
reservation for women in Parliament
The Congress today promised political stability and committed itself to create 10 million new jobs annually.
In its election manifesto released by party president Sonia
Gandhi in New Delhi today, the party promised to amend the Constitution to provide for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and
state legislatures.
In her brief address before releasing the manifesto, Sonia Gandhi
said the party held wide-ranging discussions for the first time with
experts in different fields, representatives of scheduled castes,
scheduled tribes and other backward classes, non-governmental
organisations and others on their expectations from the party.
A novel feature of the manifesto is the decision to bring
out an annual report on the progress of its implementation.
The manifesto has suggested restrictions on the entry of foreign
companies in the insurance sector and said the party, if voted to power, would permit only private Indian companies with majority Indian holdings to enter the insurance businesses. It would also give statutory status to the Insurance Regulatory Authority as part of the party's new policy of ''reforms with a human face.''
The party would pass a fiscal responsibility act to contain the ever-growing fiscal deficit. The objective of the act would be to phase out revenue deficit over the next three to four years.
The Congress, if voted to power, would also set up an expenditure management commission to work out a national consensus on all public expenditure, reorient government expenditure and bring the tax-GDP ratio to at least 18 per cent within the next five years.
The party has also pledged to corporatise the Department of Telecommunication at all levels and resolve all genuine problems of private companies keeping in mind the national interest. The manifesto promises that the existing foreign investment ceiling would also be reviewed.
It has also promised to provide telephone connections to all village panchayats, modernise postal system and give genuine autonomy to the government-owned media.
The Congress has also pledged to bring down the level of non-performing loans in nationalised banks to no more than three to four per cent of total assets, give greater autonomy to banks to function commercially and make credit delivery systems more effective and responsive.
The manifesto promised a better deal for the farmers too through
improved public investment in agriculture and implementation of
the annual perspective plan to harness the country's entire irrigation
potential in the next 15 years.
The Congress would double the annual expenditure on poverty
alleviation and social development programmes.
In a bid to strengthen Panchayati Raj systems the party has promised a constitutional amendment to liberate the cooperatives from political
and bureaucratic interference.
The party would institute a time-bound programme for filling all
vacancies of posts reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes with particular reference to class-I and class-II posts and pass a new reservation law to end the confusion caused by differing administrative interpretations of the existing provisions regarding reservations.
It would also constitute a high-level committee to examine the
issue of representation of minorities in public services and
government agencies, amend the Constitution to establish a
commission for minority educational institutions and vigorously
implement the Protection of Place of Worship Act of 1991.
The party would establish an administrative reforms commission,
pass a Lok Pal bill to launch a crusade against corruption, make
the Central Vigilance Commission a statutory body, introduce a bill for freedom of information and right to information and restructure the size and scope of the government.
It would also set up a national police commission, a national
judicial reforms commission and an ethics committee in the Lok
Sabha.
UNI
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