Congress finalises 5 guarantees for Delhi polls

The Congress on Thursday announced two new guarantees, of free power, and subsidised LPG cylinders for cooking and free ration

The Congress on Thursday announced two new guarantees, of free power, and subsidised LPG cylinders for cooking and free ration, which it promised to fulfil if it forms the government in Delhi. These are in addition to a monthly allowance for women, health insurance for residents and a stipend for unemployed youth that were previously announced, party officials said.

Telangana CM A Revanth Reddy announces Congress’ guarantees for Delhi. (ANI)

Announcing the guarantees at the Delhi Congress office in a press conference, Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy said the promises would be fulfilled in the first cabinet meeting after the Congress comes to power.

Citing the example of Telangana, where he claimed Congress fulfilled all guarantees within 13 months of coming to power, Reddy said: “People of Delhi have seen Arvind Kejriwal as the CM three times and Narendra Modi as the PM three times. Both the Delhi and central government have failed to fulfil their promises of controlling inflation, providing jobs and better infrastructure. People now miss the three terms of Congress when Sheila Dikshit was the CM. She brought in the Delhi Metro that has the largest network in the country. All development work in Delhi has been done by Congress.”

Elaborating on the promises, party members said the Congress will provide 300 free units of power, LPG cylinders for ₹500 each to domestic consumers along with ration kits, ₹2,500 allowance to women under “Pyari Didi Yojna”, ₹25 lakh health insurance for every resident and ₹8,500 monthly stipend to all educated, unemployed youths.

Reddy said the guarantees were finalised during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and Devender Yadav’s Delhi Nyay Yatra.

Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav said that there was “a scam” in Kejriwal’s 200-unit free power scheme, alleging Kejriwal had refused to audit the accounts of the distribution companies. He said that the Congress’ 300-unit free power guarantee will be implemented transparently through direct bank transfers (DBTs).

He said that the free ration kit promised by Congress would comprise five kilograms of rice, 2kg sugar, 6kg pulses, 250g tea leaves and a litre of edible oil.

Reddy also slammed the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), previously the Telangana Rashtra Samithi that helmed the Telangana government for 10 years since its formation in 2014, over the excise policy case. “Congress threw out the minor partner in the liquor scam from power in Telangana and now, it is the turn of the people of Delhi to throw out the major partner in the liquor scam, Kejriwal, from power in Delhi,” Reddy said.

He also took note of the implementation of Stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) to tackle air pollution that was implemented on Wednesday, alleging that visitors from Telangana to Delhi fell sick during their visits and needed medical attention.

“There is political pollution, environmental pollution and pollution of lies in Delhi; the time has come for the people to make a decisive change by electing the Congress to power,” Reddy said.

The BRS and AAP have consistently maintained its innocence in the alleged liquor policy scam.