Aam Admi Ke Badhte Kadam
Har Kadam Par Bharat Buland

Lok Sabha Elections 2009
MANIFESTO
Of the Indian National Congress

The Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released the party's manifesto in New Delhi on Tuesday. The manifesto lists some promises with special focus on Dalits and tribal communities.

Reiterating its National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme, the Congress has promised 100 days of work for Rs 100 a day, as an entitlement under the NREGA.

The Congress has also promised to enact a Right to Food law that guarantees food for all. It has announced that every family living below the poverty line will be entitled to 25 kg of rice or wheat per month at Rs 3 per kg. The manifesto promises subsidised community kitchens, which will be set up in all cities for homeless people and migrants, with the support of the central government.

In the health sector, the Congress has declared that every family living below the poverty line will be covered by the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana over the next three years.

The Congress manifesto Highlights:

** 25 kg wheat or rice for Rs.3 per kg

** Maximum possible security to each and every citizen

** Highest level of defence preparedness and also take further steps for the welfare of the defence forces and their families

** Acceleration in the process of police reforms

** To take the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme forward

** Enactment of a National Food Security Act

** Health security for all under Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana

** Comprehensive social security to those at special risk

** Implementation of a nation-wide skill development programme

** Expand schemes for improving well-being of farmers and their families

** Democratised and professionalised functioning of cooperatives

** Greater impetus to the empowerment of weaker sections of society.

** Elected panchayat institutions to be made financially strong

** Connect all villages to a broadband network in three years time

** Give special focus to the small entrepreneur and to small and medium enterprises

** Maintain the path of high growth with fiscal prudence and low inflation

** Introduce the goods and services tax from April 1, 2010.

** A completely new look to urban governance

** A new deal to our youth to participate in governance

** Protection of India’s natural environment and steps to rejuvenate it

** A massive renewal of science and technology infrastructure

** To pursue judicial reforms to cut delays in courts

** To continue to be sensitive to regional aspirations

** Energy security for the country

** To pursue an independent, pro-India foreign policy

** To intensify the involvement of overseas Indians in development

Download Manifesto