Congress national manifesto to be drafted in a month

​Hyderabad: All India Congress Committee (AICC) Manifesto Committee member and Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Wednesday said the manifesto of the Congress for the Parliamentary elections would be drafted in a month.

Badal has arrived in Hyderabad to take the feedback from the people on Agriculture from Telangana. He met TPCC Kisan Cell chairman M Kodanda Reddy and others. He said that he has received proposal for waiver of crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh all over the country.

Speaking to media, Badal said the AICC Manifesto Committee being headed by former Union Minister P Chidambaram has appointed him as chairman of the committee on Agriculture. He said the AICC Manifesto Committee members would be covering about 300 places in the country to prepare the draft.

He informed that draft of the Congress national manifesto would be prepared in 30 days’ time and would be submitted to the high command. The draft would be vetted by Chidambaram and would be finalised.

He said there was no policy on Agriculture though 70 years have passed since the achievement of Independence. He said that Punjab State too did not have an agriculture policy.

Badal said that recently Punjab government has prepared a policy and placed it in the Assembly. He said the new policy would give more priority to the welfare of the farmers. The welfare of the farmers has been undermined in the past and it would not help the agriculture sector in the long run. “How it would be possible to stay fit if one of the organs of the body fail?” he said.

Though Punjab leads in dairy industry it was unable to sell cows to other states with fear or lynching, he added. He said that instead of promoting the cows it would be better to raise the buffalos.