Prakash Ambedkar's VBA proposes 39 points for MVA's joint manifesto for LS polls

Mumbai: The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Prakash Ambedkar has released a list of 39 points which it seeks to include in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance's joint manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, here on Thursday.

The points cover social, political, education, employment, farmers, youth, tribals, children, women, Dalits, Minorities, and other sections of the people with plans to tackle their problems, plus health, housing, employment, etc.

The MVA allies like the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (SP), Shiv Sena (UBT), and other constituents have not yet commented on the VBA's proposals.

Touching on the reservation movement, the VBA said that the social and political atmosphere in the state has been disturbed and demanded that the Marathas and OBCs should be given separate quotas.

The VBA said that the state government's APMC Act of 2007 is anti-farmer, the farmers' suicides is linked multifactorial indebtedness along with hike in costs of various inputs like seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, water, electricity, fuel, plus lack of institutional long-term, low-interest loans and insurance cover to the tillers.

The VBA has demanded the repeal of the anti-farmer provisions in the APMC Act like promoting corporate/contract farming, FDI in retail, provide regular employment to agricultural labourers due to over-mechanisation, many of them being millions of farmers have sold their lands and become landless labourers.

The party sought minimum wages and social security for the unorganised, contractual and temporary labour forces in urban and rural areas, in the manufacturing, construction and sugar industries and other sectors including domestic workers.

The VBA said that the socio-economic status of the people in Maharashtra is steadily falling owing to the 'anti-people, insensitive and corrupt' policies of the ruling ally Bharatiya Janata Party, and only the urban or rural rich are benefitting at the cost of the working class, peasants, artisans, and other deprived sections of the population, leading to increased poverty and regional imbalances.

The VBA has said that the MVA will not implement the New Education Policy-2020 in Maharashtra and formulate its own policy for the state with a commitment to quality public education. It has proposed a health policy with infrastructure for good quality primary and secondary level health-care for the poor and disadvantaged communities, at least 10 percent of the budget for developing and strengthening the public health sector, and stopping privatisation of the health services.

Citing data, the VBA said that from 2014-2022, more than 22-crore jobless youth applied for employment but the BJP government at the Centre could only give around 7.22 lakh jobs, and more than 30 lakh central jobs are still vacant which must be filled up on a war-footing.