Congress Releases Manifesto For Lok Sabha Elections 2024, Paanch Nyay In Focus

The Congress party has announced its election manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls on Friday in Delhi. Check key promises.

Congress Manifesto LIVE: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday released party’s manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024. Former party chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary KC Venugopal, among other leaders were present at the event. Ex-Union minister P Chidambaram, who headed the manifesto committee, addressed the gathering. Notably, with the release of its manifesto, the grand old party has become the first of the two major political parties to release the vision document for the next five years.

In its manifesto, the Congress focuses on Paanch Nyay or ’five pillars of justice’, which includes – ‘Yuva Nyay’, ‘Naari Nyay’, ‘Kisaan Nyay’, ‘Shramik Nyay’ and ‘Hissedari Nyay’.

Here are key points of ‘Paanch Nyay’

Congress Manifesto: Social Justice

1.Congress will conduct a nation-wide Socio-Economic

and Caste Census to enumerate the castes and

sub-castes and their socio-economic conditions.

Based on the data, we will strengthen the agenda for

affirmative action.

2. The Congress guarantees that it will pass a

constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap

on reservations for SC, ST and OBC.

3. The reservation of 10 per cent in jobs and educational

institutions for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)

will be implemented for all castes and communities

without discrimination.

4. We will fill all the backlog vacancies in posts reserved

for SC, ST and OBC within a period of one year.

5. Congress will abolish the contractualisation of

regular jobs in the government and public sector

enterprises and ensure regularisation of such

appointments.

Congress Manifesto: Religious And Linguistic Minorities

1.We will respect and uphold the fundamental right to

practice one’s faith and the rights guaranteed to

religious minorities under Articles 15, 16, 25, 26, 28, 29

and 30 of the Constitution.

2. We will also respect and uphold the rights of linguistic

minorities guaranteed under Articles 15, 16, 29 and

30 of the Constitution.

3. We will encourage and assist students and youth

belonging to the minorities to take full advantage of the

growing opportunities in education, employment,

business, services, sports, arts and other fields.

4. We will restore the Maulana Azad Scholarships for

study abroad and increase the number of scholarships.

5. The economic empowerment of minorities is a

necessary step for India to realise its full potential. We

will ensure that banks will provide institutional credit to

minorities without discrimination.

Congress Manifesto: Senior Citizens, Persons

1. The central government’s contribution to pensions for

senior citizens, widows and persons with disabilities

under the National Social Assistance Programme

remains a pitiful 200 – 500 per month. Congress will

raise this amount to 1,000 per month.

2. We will take measures to ensure easy access to legal

services for senior citizens especially in cases of

neglect, abuse, abandonment, eviction and financial

fraud.

3. Congress will review the Maintenance and Welfare of

Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, remove the

deficiencies and enforce the Act.

4. We will restore travel concessions in public transport

(rail and road) for senior citizens.

5. We will expand Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution

to prohibit discrimination on the ground of ‘disability’,

‘impairment’ or ‘sexual orientation’.

Congress Manifesto: Health

1. We promise that healthcare will be universal and free

in public health centres such as hospitals, clinics,

primary health centres, mobile healthcare units, dispensaries

and health camps. Free healthcare will include

examination, diagnostics, treatment, surgery, medicines,

rehabilitation and palliative care.

2. The Rajasthan Model of cashless insurance up to

25 lakhs will be adopted for universal healthcare.

3. Primary Health Centres (PHC) will be upgraded

according to Indian Public Health Standards norms,

and diagnostics will be added in each PHC.

4. We will encourage the introduction of health

insurance schemes in the private sector and public

sector. The current universal healthcare programme will

be redesigned for different sections of the people and

will allow enlistment of private hospitals, non-profit

health facilities and health centres under the schemes.

5. Maternity benefits will be available to all women. All

employers shall mandatorily grant paid maternity leave

for their employees.

Congress Manifesto: Youth

1. Congress guarantees a new Right to Apprenticeship

Act to provide a one year apprenticeship with a private

or a public sector company to every diploma holder or

college graduate below the age of 25. Apprentices will

get 1 lakh a year. The apprenticeship will impart skills,

enhance employability and provide full-time job opportunities

for millions of youth.

2. We will provide fast-track courts to adjudicate cases

of leaking question papers for job examinations and

provide monetary compensation to the victims.

3. We will fill the nearly 30 lakh vacancies in sanctioned

posts at various levels in the central government. We

will stipulate that vacancies in the

panchayats and municipal bodies shall be filled according

to a timetable agreed with state governments.

4. Congress will restructure the Fund of Funds Scheme

for start-ups and allocate 50 per cent of the available

fund, as far as possible equally among all districts, for

providing funds to youth below 40 years of age to start

their own businesses and generate employment.

5. Government will give a one-time relief to applicants

who were unable to write the qualifying public examinations

during 1 April 2020 to 30 June 2021 due to the

pandemic.

Congress Manifesto: Education

1. Congress brought in the Right to Education (RTE) Act

in 2009 that transformed education for children

between the ages of 6 and 14. We will amend the RTE

Act to make education from Class I to Class XII in public

schools compulsory and free.

2. The New Education Policy (NEP) announced by the

BJP/NDA government has been opposed by educationists

and several state governments. Education is a

concurrent subject and the rights of states to formulate

an education policy must be respected. Hence, we will

revisit and amend the NEP in consultation with the state

governments.

3. We will end the practice of charging special fees for

different purposes in public schools.

4. For greater equity, affordability and transparency in

school fees charged by private schools, we will encourage

state governments to establish fee regulation

committees.

Congress Manifesto: Women

1. Congress resolves to launch a Mahalakshmi scheme

to provide 1 lakh per year to every poor Indian family

as an unconditional cash transfer. The poor will be

identified among the families in the bottom of the

income pyramid.

2. The amount will be directly transferred to the bank

account of the oldest woman of the household.

3. The scheme will be rolled out in stages and reviewed

every year to assess the number of

beneficiary families and its impact on alleviating

poverty.

Congress Manifesto: Farmers

1. Congress will give a legal guarantee to the Minimum

Support Prices (MSP) announced by the government

every year, as recommended by the Swaminathan

Commission.

2. The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices

(CACP) will be made a statutory body.

3. MSP payable to the farmer-seller at the procurement

centres and APMCs will be directly credited digitally to

the bank account of the farmer.

4. We will appoint a Permanent Commission on

Agricultural Finance that will report periodically on the

extent of agricultural credit and the need for loan

forbearance.

5. Crop insurance will be made farm and farmer

specific. Premium will be charged from the farmer

according to the sum insured and all claims will be

settled within 30 days.

Congress Manifesto: Workers

1. We will introduce reforms in industrial and labour

laws to restore the balance between labour and capital

to meet our twin goals of full employment and high

productivity gains.

2. We will address the issues of gender discrimination

and gender inequality in workplaces and in accessing

economic opportunities.

3. We will ensure that the principle of ‘Same Work, Same

Wages’ is enforced in order to prevent discrimination in

wages for women.

4. We will increase the wage under MGNREGA to 400

per day. MGNREGA funds and workers may also be

deployed to build public assets such as classrooms,

libraries and primary health centres.

5. We will launch an urban employment programme

guaranteeing work for the urban poor in reconstruction

and renewal of urban infrastructure.