The Congress manifesto for Haryana Assembly polls, released on Wednesday, is a book of freebies offered mainly to tap into women votebank by offering ₹2000 every month to those above 18 years, apart from ₹500 every month for gas cylinders and ₹6,000 pension for widows.
The pension, however, will also be able to disabled and senior citizens.
Of the total 1.97 crore voters in Haryana, 1.05 crore (over 53 percent) are male and 92.5 lakh (over 47 per cent) are female.
The move is aimed at breaking into the women votebank which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been able to consolidate since coming to power in 2014 through series of schemes such as Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao and reserving one-third of the total number of seats for women in Lok Sabha, state legislative assemblies.
These are part of the 7 guarantees Congress will fulfil in case they come to back to power after a decade in Haryana, party president Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters after releasing the manifesto at the AICC headquarters here.
The guarantees, other than those meant to empower women, is directed at offering social security, securing future of youth, welfare of poor and financial accomplishment for farmers.
Other guarantees
Besides, to address unemployment, the Congress chief said the party will give 2 lakh permanent jobs to youth. He also said, “Every household will be given 300 units of free electricity and free medical treatment of up to ₹25 lakh... The poor will be given a 100 square yard plot each and ₹3.5 lakh as construction cost... We guarantee MSP to the farmers of the State...”
True to its stand demanding that Centre carry out caste enumeration in the country, Kharge also stated that the party will conduct caste census and creamy layer limit for reservation will be Rs 10 lakh.
The Congress also tried to reach out to the agrarian community by promising to build a memorial for farmers who lost their lives during the agitation against the three laws brought by the Centre which it had to later shelve due to strong protests.
Not just that, Kharge said the Congress will give jobs to children of deceased farmers.
It has also tried to address drug abuse in the state by promising to make Haryana free of narcotics.
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