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Cash aid, ₹25 lakh health cover, land rights: Kharge unveils Assam Congress manifesto
Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge announces 5 guarantees for Assam, including cash aid, ₹25L health cover, land rights, and support for women and seniors ahead of polls
Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday released the party’s manifesto for next month’s Assam assembly polls, promising five key guarantees, including cash transfers for women, health insurance and land rights if voted to power.
Addressing a public rally in Naoboicha, Kharge said all women will receive an “unconditional” monthly cash transfer to their bank accounts, apart from ₹50,000 to start their own business ventures if Congress is voted to power.
“We are calling the cash transfer unconditional as the money which BJP is giving to women now is conditional. To become a beneficiary, one has to be a member of the BJP, but we won’t impose such conditions and everyone will be given cash benefits,” he said, explaining Congress’s promise of “unconditional” monthly cash transfers.
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Kharge said the party would also provide guaranteed cashless health insurance of ₹25 lakh to each family, adding that such promises have been fulfilled in Rajasthan, Karnataka and Telangana where the party has been in power.
“We also promise to provide justice to late Zubeen Garg within 100 days of coming to power. We will find out who killed him and what was the conspiracy within that time period,” Kharge said. The murder trial of Garg, who died in Singapore in September last year, in which seven people, including his former manager, his cousin and an event organiser, were arrested, has been transferred to a fast-track court by the Gauhati High Court, and daily hearings will begin from March 30.
He said that instead of issuing annual land ‘patta’ (ownership documents) like the current government, Congress would grant permanent ‘patta’ to 1 million ‘bhoomiputras’ (indigenous inhabitants). “This will ensure that people don’t have to renew their records annually or request favours from officials and run from one place to another. We have done it in Karnataka where we gave records to 680,000 people,” Kharge said.
The Congress manifesto also promises ₹1,250 every month to all senior citizens of the state. “These are the guarantees which we will provide. Hence, I request the voters to support Congress and help us rid Assam of misrule and corruption indulged in by the BJP government in the state,” said Kharge.
Addressing the gathering, Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi targeted the BJP government in the state for its divisive policies and promised that once his party comes to power, such actions will not be undertaken.
“I promise that if Congress comes to power, we will bring a law under which anyone who targets another religion and tries to create communal divisions will be sent to prison for five years,” he said.
