Statutory Status To Six Guarantees In First Cabinet Meeting: Congress

The Congress has decided to confer statutory status on all the six guarantees announced by it in its manifesto in the run-up to the Assembly elections, in its first cabinet meeting if it comes into power in Telangana.

After offering prayers at the Birla Mandir and a dargah in Nampally, AICC State incharge Manikrao Thakre, TPCC president Revanth Reddy, Anjan Kumar Yadav, Madhu Yashki, V Hanumantha Rao and other leaders of the party took an oath to implement the promises and guarantees made to the people in the elections.

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had promised the people of Telangana at a public meeting held in Tukkuguda on September 17 of this year that her party would implement these six guarantees in Telangana after coming into power:

1. Mahalakshmi scheme: Under this, women will get Rs 2,500 per month, cooking gas cylinders for Rs 500 per cylinder, and free travel facility in all the RTC buses of the State.

2. Rythu Bharosa scheme: Farmers including tenant farmers will be given a monetary benefit of Rs 15,000 per acre per year, and agricultural labourers will get Rs 12,000 per acre. The party also promised a bonus of Rs 500 per acre for paddy production.

3. Gruha Jyothi scheme: 200 units of free electricity will be provided to each eligible family.

4. Indiramma Indlu (housing) scheme: A house site and Rs 5 lakh will be given to each homeless family. The party also promised sites of 250 square yards each to all Telangana statehood activists.

5. Cheyutha scheme: Elderly citizens will get a Rs 4,000 per month pension, and the poor will get Rs 10 lakh insurance coverage under the Rajiv Arogyasri scheme.

6. Yuva Vikasam scheme: Telangana International Schools will be established in every mandal, and Vidya Bharosa cards worth Rs 5 lakh will be given to all eligible students.

The Congress widely publicised these six guarantees in its election campaign, and party leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Revanth Reddy and Bhatti Vikramarka announced that a law on these six guarantees would be enacted in the first cabinet meeting itself if the party came to power.