Ahmedabad:
With barely ten days left for the first phase of polling in Gujarat, Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Monday unveiled his election manifesto. The please all manifesto is focused on farmers, youth and what he calls a 'neo-middle class'.
Revealing the vision document for the 2012 polls, flanked by senior party leaders including Arun Jaitly and state president R C Faldu, Mr Modi announced that the manifesto was 'a document to ensure growth of all'. (
Highlights of the manifesto)
"Be it the poor or the farmers, the youth or the woman, in the next five years we want to ensure that all the strata of the society get benefits from our schemes," he announced. Perhaps sensing growing unrest amongst farmers in the politically crucial Saurashtra region, Mr Modi has promised several schemes centred around the farmers.
"We have in the recent past taken several steps for promotion of agricultural technology and we want to involve farmers and ensure that the benefits of this technology go to them," he said. Among the highlights of the manifesto include government sharing the interest burden of farmer loans, relaxation in stamp duty in case of mutual voluntary exchange of survey numbers amongst farmers, district network of cold storages and agro processing units to relieve farmers from hassles of storing agricultural produce.
The party also claimed that all pending demands for agricultural connections will be met on a war footing and the land under irrigation will be increased by 16 lakh hectares.
Another highlight is the neo-middle class which the Gujarat chief minister claims has been created by the decade-long development in the state. "This is a class which has been created by the development. We will try to identify this class and parameters will be fixed and once it's identified we will evolve a policy on how they could benefit," he said.
And what is being seen as a counter to the Congress' free housing scheme for women, the BJP manifesto envisages constructing 28 lakh houses in rural areas and 22 lakh in urban areas. The department which takes care of the scheme will be headed by the chief minister himself.
But the Congress is targeting the Modi government for unfulfilled promises. The party alleged that in 2007 the BJP had promised to complete Sardar Sarovar dam project by 2010. "So far, 80 per cent of the canal network work remains incomplete. The party had promised electricity connection to all farmers but over three lakh applications are still pending," alleged Congress spokesperson Ami Yagnik.
The party also alleged that the BJP had promised to eradicate poverty from rural Gujarat and uplift all Below Poverty Line (BPL) families but on the contrary, around six lakh new BPL families have come up in rural Gujarat in the last few years.
So in this season of promises and counter promises all eyes are on the Gujarat Chief Minister.