Congress releases 12-point SC/ST Declaration, throws BRS a welfare challenge ahead of Assembly polls

The Congress is sentimental about the small town as it was from there that the late former chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh, YS Rajasekhara Reddy, began his historic padayatra in 2003 and brought the party to power a year later, breaking the stranglehold of the TDP on the state.

On 2 July, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi set the tone for the campaign for the elections by addressing a huge public meeting in Khammam to mark the induction of former BRS MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy into the party.

At the event, he had announced that the Congress, when it comes to power in the state, would pay ₹4,000 per month as pension to senior citizens — an announcement that flustered the ruling the BRS, which pays ₹1,000 less as pension to the aged under Aasara.

Rahul Gandhi released a farmers’ declaration in Warangal in May last year, and Priyanka Gandhi, the youth declaration in Hyderabad in May this year.

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The highlights of the SC/ST Declaration are:

• ₹12 lakh for each family under the Dr Ambedkar Abhaya Hastam (to rival BRS government’s Dalit Bandhu)

• The Indiramma Pucca House scheme for a site and ₹6 lakh for construction (to rival BRS government’s Gruhalakshmi).

• And creation of three new corporations for the benefit of SCs and STs.

‘BJP-BRS helping each other’

Kharge, in his address, hauled both the BRS and the BJP over the coals for entering into an tacit understanding to help each other.

“This is the reason why neither attacks the other,” he said.

At the national level, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) has distanced himself from INDIA, the newly-formed alliance of 26 parties, which only shows that his actions are intended to help the BJP, Kharge charged.

“KCR says his party is secular, but his actions help the BJP,” he said, asserting that INDIA will not only dislodge the Union government led by the BJP, but also the BRS in the state.

The Congress president, in a fiery speech, pointed out that KCR had stolen the thunder over the creation of a separate Telangana state from the Congress.

“I feel sad whenever I remember the days of the Telangana movement. After the formation of Telangana, it was not the people, but one family that has prospered. Telangana was given to the people, but KCR and his family have appropriated it for themselves. People are ready to send KCR and his family home in the upcoming Assembly elections,” he said.

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‘Congress gave people Telangana’

The AICC president said that it was the Congress which gave the people a separate Telangana state.

“KCR did not have the power to get Telangana. It was the Congress which empowered him. He, in turn, should have supported the Congress. But he did not. After the creation of Telangana, KCR and his family called on Sonia Gandhi and thanked her,” he said.

Kharge said he was certain that the Congress would come to power in Telangana and it would honour all the promises made to the people. “In Karnataka, we are implementing all the promises we made,” he said.

“BJP leader and Union minister Amit Shah is arriving in Telangana tomorrow. He will only target the Congress, asking what it had done for the nation during its long innings in power in the state and in the country,” Kharge said, even as he reminded the crowd that it was the Congress which gave the country its Constitution.

“It had set up IITs and IIMs. It was (first prime minister Jawaharlal) Nehru and (first Union home minister Vallabbhai) Patel who integrated smaller states like Hyderabad into India,” he said.

Kharge said that in Telangana, too, it was the Congress which had done a lot for the people in the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh.

“Who has built the irrigation projects in Telangana? It is because of the Congress that the food grain production in Telangana has gone up. We had abolished the zamindari system. At the national level, the Congress had brought MGNREGA. If everyone has a cellphone in his hand today, it is because of Rajiv Gandhi — he laid the road for the technology revolution in the country,” Kharge contended.

Others who spoke at the meeting included TPCC president A Revanth Reddy, Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, and Congress Working Committee member Damodar Rajanarasimha.

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The 12-point SC/ST Declaration:

1. Implementation of Ambedkar Abhaya Hastham, a scheme to provide financial assistance of ₹12 lakh per family to SCs and STs within five years, starting from 2023-24. The requisite budget allocation will be made in every year’s Budget. The financial assistance is intended to enhance the incomes of the SC and STs communities

2. Provide 18 percent reservation for SCs and 12 percent reservation for STs in government procurement and public work contracts.

3. Provide reservations for SC/STs in private educational institutions and jobs in private companies, and in availing incentives from the government.

4. Provide a house site and ₹6 lakh for construction of houses, under the Indiramma Pucca Houses scheme to every houseless SC and ST family. Saturation approach will be followed to cover all the eligible families within five years.

5. All the lands assigned to SCs and STs, but usurped by BRS government will be restored to the original assignees, with all the rights. When lands are acquired for public purpose under the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, the assigned lands will be treated on par with patta lands for payment of compensation.

6. Forest Rights Act, which was passed by the Congress government under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, will be strictly implemented to provide pattas for podu lands to all eligible beneficiaries.

7. Introduce Sammakka Sarakka Girijana Graminabhivrudhi Pathakam (SGGP) to provide an annual grant of ₹25 Lakh to each Tanda and Gudem Gram Panchayats.

8. Establish three new SC Corporations and provide grants of ₹750 crore to each every year. The three corporations would be: Madiga Corporation, Mala Corporation, (3) Other SC Sub-castes Corporations, for the most downtrodden SC sub-castes.

9. Establish three new Tribal Corporations and provide grants of ₹500 crore to each every year. The three Corporations would be: Tukaram Adivasi Corporation for the welfare of Koya, Gond, Pradhan and Andh communities of Telangana, the Sant Sevalal Lambada Corporation for the welfare of Lambadas, and the Yerukula Corporation for the welfare of Yerukulas and other plain area tribes.

10. Establish five new plain area ITDAs (Integrated Tribal Development Agencies) in Nalgonda, Mahabubabad, Khammam, Nizamabad, and Mahabubnagar for overall development of tribal communities. Establish super-speciality hospitals at all ITDA headquarters

11. Implement Vidya Jyothulu Pathakam, to provide financial assistance for SC/ST students of ₹10,000 upon passing Class 10, ₹15,000 upon passing intermediate, ₹25,000 upon graduation, and ₹1 Lakh upon post-graduation. Provide ₹5 Lakh for SC/ST youth completing MPhils and PhDs.

12. Establish residential schools for SCs/STs in every mandal and reintroduce the fee-reimbursement scheme. Provide hostel facilities to all SC/ST students pursuing graduation and post-graduation. Provide financial assistance to every SC /ST student who secures admission in universities abroad.