Full loan waiver, jobs for locals: Congress-NCP

Mumbai: Complete loan waiver for farmers, monthly unemployment allowance of `5,000 to the jobless and reserving 80 per cent of jobs for locals — these are the three major promises that the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance has said it will fulfil if they come to power after the Assembly polls in the state.

The Congress and NCP, which are battling for survival against the might of the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, released their joint manifesto, “Shapathnama”, on Monday. The parties have resorted to a “please all” approach by targeting a wide range of issues, including indebtedness among farmers, youth unemployment, environment and urban and rural development. In addition to these major promises, the two parties have promised free education until graduation for students in government-run and government-aided colleges, as well as universal health insurance across the state.

Congress-NCP leaders also reiterated their long-standing promise of providing 80 per cent jobs to “sons of the soil”.

“We will reserve 80 per cent jobs in industries for locals. This will be implemented by bringing a required legislation,” said Balasaheb Thorat, state Congress president.

State NCP chief Jayant Patil said that a blanket loan waiver would be given to farmers immediately after the Congress-NCP combine comes to power.

“We will focus on making agriculture a lucrative profession. To make this possible, all their debt will be waived off in the first four months. Increasing agricultural productivity and providing proper remuneration for their produce will be our priority,” the manifesto says.

The joint manifesto also promises to implement a policy whereby jobless youth across the state would receive a regular allowance of `5000.

“For 32,000 vacancies, the Maharashtra government has received 32 lakh applications, which shows that the unemployment rate is high,” he said.

Assembly elections for the 288-member Maharashtra legislature will take place on October 21. The counting of votes will take place on October 24. The term of the outgoing 13th Assembly ends on November 8.

While the Congress-NCP combine has promised to promote the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial by providing it a special status, the project surprisingly does not find a mention in the joint manifesto. The project was first mooted by the Congress-NCP govt when they were in power earlier.