Cong to transform AP into ‘Navyandhra Pradesh’

The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) promises to include Kapu’s, including other sub-castes like Balija and Ontari communities, in the list of backward castes if voted to power. Releasing the party manifesto for the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh, Union minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday said that this has been a contentious issue between the BCs and Kapus. The BCs had opposed the inclusion of Kapus in BC list. Hence the party would appoint a BC commission to study the matter and get the issue examined so as to avoid legal problems later on. Party sources say that Chiranjeevi had played a significant role in getting this issue included in the manifesto. The manifesto, however, stated that care would be taken to ensure that fresh inclusion did not dilute the quantum of existing reservations to the BCs. The manifesto consists of a 10-point programme promising to transform the residuary Andhra Pradesh into a ‘Navyandhra Pradesh’.

The party promised to launch ‘Priyadarshini’ scheme for the welfare of girl child. Under the scheme, 100 sq. yards house site would be registered in the name of the girl child immediately after birth and the government would construct a house for her at the time of marriage. Taking a cue from political parties in Tamil Nadu, the manifesto promises to give colour TVs with dish connection to poor women and also promised a laptop to every student who passes SSC.

In a bid to woo the employees, the party said that the Congress government would implement five-day week in Andhra Pradesh and increase the age of retirement from 58 years to 60 years. To address the problems of farmers, the manifesto stated that the Congress would supply nine-hour free power for agriculture. For the domestic sector, the party has promised that there would be no hike in power tariff for a period of five years. It also assured that the first 100 units of power consumed would not be billed. As part of contingency plan to meet natural calamities like drought and floods, the Congress said it would set up an emergency relief fund with a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore.

The Congress claimed that it would take measures to eliminate middlemen during procurement of paddy so that the farmer could get best price. It also proposed to set up ‘Shramik Banks’ on the lines of Kerala for the benefit of agricultural labour. It also proposed to link Godavari, Krishna and Penna so that all the river basins in the residuary State would get sufficient water. Other sops offered by the Congress include a saree and a dhoti thrice a year for all BPL families, increase in old age pension to Rs 1,000 to all persons, including SCs, STs and BCs, monthly pension of Rs 1,500 to physically challenged persons, creation of 10 million jobs per annum by attracting Rs 5 lakh crore investment, setting up of ITI and Polytechnic colleges in every mandal, upgrading of district hospitals to super speciality hospitals and providing Arogyasri cards to all non-IT payers.