Priyanka Gandhi sounds poll bugle in MP with five 'tested' promises
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 12 Jun, 2023 10:53 AM
Bhopal, June 12 (IANS) Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Monday kick-started party's poll campaign for Madhya Pradesh Asembly polls with five promises on the line of Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, where it won recently.
Priyanka's rally in Jabalpur also indicated that the Congress will corner the ruling BJP highlighting scams, especially alleged corruption in Mahakal Lok corridor project.
Like in 2018, the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi had promised to wave off farmers loans, and the party under the leadership of Kamal Nath had managed to return to power after 15 years gap, Priyanka sounded the poll bugles with offering financial scheme of Rs 1500 per month, LPG cylinder at subsidised rate of Rs 500 along with cheaper electricity.
Worth mentioning that the Congress promised to provide Rs 1500 to women (with certain conditions) under its proposed scheme 'Nari Samman Yojana' to counter the BJP's 'Ladli Behna Yojana' launched by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently. Similarly, subsidised cooking gas will counter Prime Minuter Narendra Modi's flagship 'Ujjawala Yojana' launched in May 2016.
Besides these, the Congress also made another major announcement for implementing the old pension scheme (OPS) to gain support of state government employees and their families in the coming elections. The cheaper electricity is akin to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced in its debut election in 2013 and since then it maintained the same in states it contested the elections.
"The Congress government in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh has restored the OPS. Our government in Karnataka has cleared the five guarantees (the poll promises made by the party there)," Priyanka said while addressing a mammoth poll gathering in Jabalpur on Monday.
Notably, the Congress made the similar five-point promises in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka and managed uproot the BJP from both states and formed the government with absolute majority.
In her speech, Priyanka hit out at Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government highlighting issues like atrocities against women and tribals, unemployment, scams broke out in the past 18 years in Madhya Pradesh. Referring to collapse of Saptarishi idols in Ujjain's Mahakal Lok corridor, Priyanka said, "Shivraj government did not spare even the God."
Meanwhile, mocking the BJP's 'double-engine government' poll talk, the General Secretary said, "We have seen a lot of double and triple-engine governments, but people of Himachal and Karnataka have given a befitting reply in the polls."
While 700 students had faced action on the same ground earlier, now it had come to light that 200 more students had been served deportation orders by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) after it was revealed that they had been given fake admission letters by an authorised agent -- Education Migration Services in Jalandhar.
Chairing a state-level function to mark World Environment Day, he expressed concern over the depleting ground water table and polluting environment in the state. He said immediate remedial steps are required to save the only precious and scarce natural resource of Punjab in terms of water along with checking the environmental pollution.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had on Sunday said that the Railway Board has recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into Friday's horrifying accident which left 275 people dead and over 800 injured. He also said that the accident happened due to a change in electronic interlocking.
The total number of rescued women in two weeks rose to 24 under the initiative Mission Hope run by Punjab AAP Rajya Sabha member, Vikram Sahney. Sahney informed that the women who came on Saturday are from Jalandhar, Shahkot, Phillaur, Jagraon, Patti, Tarn Taran, Nakodar and Bathinda.
The train is expected to improve the connectivity on the Mumbai-Goa route and provide people of the region with the means to travel with speed and comfort. It will be the 19th Vande Bharat train to run in the country.
Ahead of the meeting of the Haryana and Himachal Pradesh Chief Ministers on the issue of water sharing next week, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Friday said Haryana did not have any right on water from the Ravi-Beas river basin in Himachal Pradesh, being a non-riparian state.
