PUDUCHERRY: The Congress' manifesto for the May 16 assembly election in Puducherry, which was released on Friday, promises 50% reservation for women in local bodies and a job for each household. It also promises to obtain special statehood status for Puducherry.
Puducherry Pradesh Congress Committee president A Namassivayam released the manifesto in the presence of local Congress leaders.
The manifesto promises to enact a law to provide employment for a person in each family in the territory. It promises to establish an information technology park at a 50-acre site within a year of its formation of government. It will also establish an electronic park in the territory.
It will invite leading firms like TCS, CTS, Verizon, L&T and Tech Mahindra to establish branches in Puducherry by offering them a slew of concessions to generate employment for the educated unemployed youth in the territory. It promises to provide employment to one lakh people in government and private sectors besides through self-employment schemes. The party promises to conduct caste-based census and reserve education and employment opportunities based on the population of different castes. It says the party will initiate efforts to hold election to the local bodies, besides providing 50% reservation for women in them.
Congress promises to pass an order after initiating legal action to fill up 50% of seats in the medical and engineering colleges through a centralised action committee. It will introduce postgraduate courses from academic year 2016-17 in the Indira Gandhi government Medical College cum Research Institute.
It says the government will bear the tuition fees of students of professional colleges who studied in government schools in the last five preceding years. It promises to regularise fee structure in private schools.
The party promises 30kg rice and 5kg wheat free of cost for all ration cardholders. It will eradicate bogus ration cards to ensure that the subsidies and benefits extended by the government reached the genuine beneficiaries.
The party will introduce a health insurance scheme for all sections of people, free master health checkup scheme once in five years for people above 40 years. It will enhance the freedom fighters pension to Rs 10,000, old age pension to Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 for people above 80 years. It will provide financial assistance of Rs 3,000 per month to differently abled people.
The party has been of the strong opinion that statehood will be detrimental to Puducherry and only a special statehood status with assured financial assistance from the Union government will benefit the tiny territory, which neither has its own resources nor a big market for finished goods.
It promises to initiate efforts to approach the Union government for waiving off Rs 6,500-crore debt and obtain special funds for the all-round development of the territory.
The party will provide set-top boxes free of cost to all cable television connections and ensure uniform monthly cable charges. It will reduce the power tariff by 50%. Moreover, the consumers will pay based on units of power consumed and other miscellaneous charges will be borne by the government.