MCD polls: One Congress manifesto out, two more to go
Ajay Maken releases the manifesto Monday. (Express/Praveen Khanna) Ajay Maken releases the manifesto Monday. (Express/Praveen Khanna)
Releasing the first of its three-part manifestos, the Congress on Monday offered no freebies to voters but sought to improve the functioning of the Municipal Corporations of Delhi by plugging leakages and efficient tapping of civic resources. Party’s state chief Ajay Maken, while releasing the manifesto, emphasised the need for improving the lives of urban poor.
“Congress has pulled up all its resources and plunged in its decades’ long administrative experience while preparing this manifesto, apart from fixing the fiscal crunch, the involvement of likes of former finance minister P Chidambaram has resulted in Congress coming out with a concrete roadmap for generating additional annual revenue of Rs 5,200 crore,” Maken said.
The manifesto has four main focus areas — financial self-reliance of the urban local bodies, environment issues, superior delivery of healthcare services and education. The party announced that if voted to power, it would set up a department for urban poverty alleviation. It has also promised setting up of ward-level employment exchange kiosks to register the unorganised labourers. Additionally, the manifesto states that a scheme for insurance (health and accident) of the unorganised workforce will be introduced, including sanitary workers, street vendors, construction workers and domestic helps, among others.
The party has promised to regularise contractual safai-karamcharis within two years of employment. The Congress said it will not impose new taxes and JJ clusters on MCD land will be rehabilitated in-situ. Two more manifestos by the party will be released over the next two days.
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