Farm loan waiver may be among Congress’s Telangana promises

According to a party spokesperson, the state Congress has shortlisted a dozen guarantees to be part of the election manifesto

Hyderabad: Waiving crop loans of farmers up to ₹2 lakh, an annual financial assistance of ₹12,000 to each landless poor families and release of ₹5 lakh each to poor families for construction of Indiramma houses are likely to be the “six guarantees” that the Congress will announce for the people of Telangana ahead of the assembly elections, according to people aware of the details.

Congress is likely ti announce six guarantees at a public meeting at Tukkuguda on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Sunday.

While the party had originally planned to declare “five guarantees” for elections to the 119-seat assembly, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president A Revanth Reddy on Friday said Congress leader Sonia Gandhi would announce six guarantees at a public meeting, titled ‘Vijaya Bheri’, at Tukkuguda on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Sunday.

“Sonia Gandhi kept the promise she had made during the Karimnagar meeting in 2004 to grant separate statehood to Telangana. In the same manner, the party will fulfill its promise of implementing six guarantees by all means within 30 days of coming to power in Telangana,” Reddy said.

According to a party spokesperson, the state Congress has shortlisted a dozen guarantees to be part of the election manifesto, of which six would be finalised and announced by Gandhi on Sunday.

“These 12 promises include gifting of electric scooter to each woman student above 18 years of age and free travel for women in state-run RTC buses, ₹15,000 per acre per year to each tenant farmers along with original farmers, an allowance of ₹4,000 per month to each unemployed youngster, supply of LPG cylinder ₹500 to each woman below poverty line and a pension of ₹25,000 per year to parents of a youngster who died during the agitation for a separate Telangana state before 2014,” the spokesperson said.

During a public rally at Chevella on August 26, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said each SC/ST family would be provided a financial assistance of ₹12 lakh under the Dr Ambedkar Abhaya Hastam (to counter the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi government’s Dalit Bandhu scheme) and this may also be part of the six guarantees, the spokesperson said.

The party is also planning a scheme for OBCs and minorities, the spokesperson added.

In May, the Congress won the Karnataka assembly elections on issues such as inflation and unemployment to mobilise support amongst the poor and middle class. It also promised various welfare measures, such as free units of power and cash incentives for women and unemployed youngsters. The party unit in Rajasthan, which is also slated to go to the polls this year, has decided to follow the Karnataka model and focus on the Ashok Gehlot-led government’s “poor-friendly” schemes.

Reddy said the Congress is considering the financial position of the state while designing the election guarantees, to ensure it does not create a burden on the state exchequer. “We shall ensure that all the guarantees would have proper budgetary allocations so that the party, if comes to power, would not find it difficult to implement the same,” he said.

Congress in-charge of Telangana affairs, Manikrao Thakre, said the party will pick 119 functionaries to oversee all 119 constituencies. “Soon after the public rally on Sunday, they (these functionaries) would go to the respective constituencies allotted to them. They would go door-to-door and hand over the brochures to the people, explaining the significance of the guarantees and seek their support for the party,” Thakre said.

The functionaries, he added, would also carry copies of a “charge sheet” that would highlight the failures of the government.

There was no immediate reaction available from BRS.

In 2018, the BRS won 88 seats and the Congress 19.