Hyderabad, Adilabad: Stressing the importance of holding a nationwide caste census to get data on the financial status of members of the OBC, SC, and ST communities, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday promised that the I.N.D.I.A. bloc would pass a Bill to remove the 50 per cent cap for the reservations and provide more welfare schemes if it came to power at the Centre.
Against this, Rahul Gandhi said, “The BJP and RSS leaders are telling the country that they will change the Constitution.” They would end reservations, he said a election meetings at Alampur, Gadwal, in support of party candidate Mallu Ravi and Nirmal for Atram Suguna.
He also promised the ‘Pehli Naukri Pakki’ scheme, which he said was the first one of its kind in the world to provide job rights to the unemployed.
"We will provide job opportunities to all graduates, diploma holders, and postgraduates… thousands of jobs have fallen vacant over the past few years," Gandhi said.
The Congress-led government would deposit Rs 1 lakh into the bank accounts of these job holders at a monthly salary of Rs 8,500. He said their services would be regularised based on their performance for a year.
Gandhi said that he had embarked on the 4,000-km Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir to meet the people. Thousands of students and youths complained that they lacked job opportunities due to the negligence of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.
He said the Congress government in the state had implemented a number of welfare schemes. If the Congress comes to power at the Centre, the I.N.D.I.A bloc would waive loans for farmers and provide Rythu Bandhu. “The BJP government neglected the agriculture sector. The Congress party would implement MSP for all crops," the AICC leader said.
A woman from every poor family, identified during the caste census, would get Rs 1 lakh per year from the government. The amount would be deposited directly into their bank accounts.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his NDA-led BJP government worked only to make 22 families in India rich. If the Congress comes to power, we will provide welfare schemes for OBCs, SCs and STs," Rahul Gandhi said.
Earlier, Rahul Gandhi participated in the Jana Jathara Sabha held at Nirmal and said that the Congress government formed in Telangana state had implemented five schemes of Six Guarantees.
Gandhi said elections were a fight between two ideologies, one trying to protect the Constitution and the other side to scrap it.
Gandhi said privatisation was nothing but removing the reservations and it was high time for the people to protect the Constitution and bring in a people's government.
He said whatever rights the poor got, such as jal, jangal, jameen, reservations, public sector employment, and MGNREGS, was because of the Constitution. The BJP will snatch them away, he said.
He said the media had criticised the MNREGA as a scheme that would make the poor lazy. But the media saw development in the Modi government waiving Rs 16 lakh crores for industrialists. This sum would have paid for MNREGA for 24 years.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy criticised BRS working president K.T Rama Rao and its leaders for spreading false propaganda that the Congress government had failed to implement its guarantees. He asked Rama Rao to wear a sari and travel on a bus to find out if the guarantees were being implemented or not.
He reiterated that the government would complete payment of Rythu Bandu on May 9 and waive crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh by August 15.
