Congress guarantees Rs 1 lakh annual direct money switch to ladies from poor households

The Congress on Wednesday stated that it might guarantee annual direct money transfers of Rs 1 lakh to ladies from economically weaker households, ought to it come to energy within the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, reported Moneycontrol.

The peace of mind is a part of the Congress’ 5 ensures for ladies forward of the polls, which additionally features a 50% reservation for ladies in authorities jobs.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi introduced the 5 ensures, collectively referring to them as “Nari Nyay” or “Justice for Ladies”, at a ladies’s rally in Maharashtra’s Dhule district. The rally was organised as a part of the Congress’ ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

Gandhi additionally stated that the Centre’s contribution towards the month-to-month honorarium given to Accredited Social Well being Activists, anganwadi employees and girls working for the Noon Meal Scheme can be doubled within the Union Funds.

Earlier within the day, get together president Mallikarjun Kharge introduced the 5 ensures on social media, saying that they might set a “new agenda” for ladies.

“Our phrases are set in stone,” Kharge stated. “That is our file from 1926 until now, when our opponents had been being born, we’ve got been making manifestos, and fulfilling these declarations,” he added.

Different ensures included the appointment of a paralegal in each panchayat to make sure that ladies are made conscious of their rights and to offer them with mandatory authorized help.

The Congress additionally stated that it might arrange no less than one working ladies’s hostel in all district headquarters throughout the nation.

‘Will settle Forest Rights Act claims in a single 12 months’

On Tuesday, the Congress promised Adivasis that it might make sure the settlement of all pending Forest Rights Act claims inside a 12 months, if it got here to energy after the polls.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, accompanied by Common Secretary KC Venugopal and different senior leaders, had unveiled the get together’s ‘Adivasi Sankalp’ manifesto in New Delhi promising six ensures for India’s Adivasi communities.

Kharge had additionally introduced the manifesto on social media and stated that the Congress was decided to guard Adivasi’s rights to “zameen [land], jungle and jal [water]”.

The get together president stated that the Congress would arrange a “nationwide mission” for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act by means of a devoted administration and finances.

The Parliament had handed the Forest Rights Act in 2006. The regulation gave again to conventional forest dwellers their rights to entry, handle and govern forest lands and sources inside their village boundaries. These had been beneath the management of the forest division since earlier than Independence. The regulation makes the gram sabha the statutory physique for managing forest lands. It supplies that no exercise ought to be carried out in these forests till particular person and group claims over them have been settled.

Final 12 months, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs had stated within the Lok Sabha that over 38% of all of the claims made beneath the Forest Rights Act until November 30, 2022, had been rejected.

On Tuesday, Kharge stated that the get together would make sure the settlement of all of the pending Forest Rights Act claims inside one 12 months of coming to energy that it might set up a course of to assessment the rejected claims inside six months.

Kharge, whereas itemizing the opposite ensures within the manifesto, stated that the get together would “withdraw all amendments made by the Modi authorities to the Forest Conservation Act and Land Acquisition Act which have brought on such nice misery to Adivasis”.

The Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, or Forest (Conservation and Augmentation) Act, handed in Parliament in 2023 regardless of protests by the Opposition, excluded giant swathes of “deemed forest” land throughout India from safety and opened them as much as improvement.

A “deemed forest” refers to land that isn’t formally labeled as a “forest” by central or state authorities in income data by notification beneath the Indian Forest Act, 1927.

Kharge stated that the Congress would “notify all habitations or teams of habitations the place STs [Scheduled Tribes] are the most important social group as Scheduled Areas – in all States and Union Territories of India”.

Kharge additionally promised that the Congress would cross a regulation guaranteeing a minimal help value to farmers for agricultural commodities, and stated that the regulation could have the same provision to compensate Adivasis for the manufacturing of minor forest produce.

A minimal help value is the speed at which the federal government buys farm produce and relies on a calculation of no less than one and a half instances the price of manufacturing incurred by the farmers. Minor forest produce contains non-timber commodities which might be harvested by Adivasis on forest land, akin to bamboo, honey, tubers, leaves, medicinal crops and herbs, amongst others.

This promise comes amid the continuing farmers’ protests led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha unions. Thousand of protestors have been stationed at numerous places on the Punjab-Haryana border since February 13.

The protesting farmers’ teams are primarily in search of a regulation guaranteeing a minimal help value and the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Fee Report’s wider suggestions on farming in India.

The Congress additionally promised to revive the Scheduled Caste Plan and the Tribal Sub-Plan.

Earlier the identical day, Gandhi had stated that the Bharatiya Janata Celebration-led Union authorities was taking away land from Adivasis and transferring them to company entities, The Hindu reported.

Gandhi, whereas talking in Nandurbar district throughout the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had granted a mortgage waiver of ₹16 lakh crore to 22 industrialists whereas no aid has been supplied for Adivasis, Dalits and the poor.