Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday and appealed the electorate to vote for change. Claiming that her party was pro-people, Mamata said that the past decade had see "rampant misrule" which has left the country weak, demoralised and divided, with inequity, injustice, falling economic growth and corruption all around.
Here is the full text of the manifesto:
16th Lok Sabha Election 2014
AN APPEAL
Mothers, Brothers & Sisters.
The rampant misrule of the past decade has left us weak,
demoralized and divided, with inequity, injustice, falling
economic growth and corruption all around. The time
has come for CHANGE and the time has come for the REGENERATION
of India.
Our Party's ideology is fundamentally 'pro-people' - a Government of the people, by the people and for the people.
We will bring 'people centricity', transparency and integrity on all matters of Governance. All policies must stand the test of these fundamental values.
We believe in policies which are necessarily people friendly, industry friendly and farmer friendly.
Our humble effort will be to create a dynamic India that proudly holds its head high in the comity of Nations.
Our message is one of hope and change. Our message is one of fulfilment of dreams into reality of all brothers and sisters of this great Nation.
Secularism is our ideology and full protection of minorities is our mission.
Providing food, shelter and livelihood to the poor people of India is our utmost priority.
We stand at the cross roads of history when the nation is demanding a
political change and a change in governance. The Congress and the
BJP have totally lost their credibility and credentials with the people of India. Widespread and rampant corruption marked the UPA-I1 misrule.
And BJP has been repeatedly held responsible for riots and communal strife. Of course, the Communists have lost all credibility and support of the people due to their inner contradictions and fascistic misrule.
While Trinamool Congress has a long history of struggle for the people, it has found wide acceptance among the people, representing the best model for Governance, Progress & Prosperity of the people.
Even during NDA regime, we did not tolerate anti-people policy adopted by NDA and had immediately put on record our strong protests.
Therefore, Trinamool Congress strongly believes in an independent, honest and grassroots based Federal Front that will serve the diverse aspirations of a united India.
Jai Hind Bande Mataram Khuda-Hafiz
The National Manifesto of All India Trinamool Congress
Our Vision & Mission
To achieve these goals, we present a pointed Manifesto of our Party.
1. We believe in a United India characterised by its unique diversities.
It is time that a new model be unveiled in which the Unity of India is strengthened while the Diversity of India is fully protected.
2. We believe in a Secular India.
3. The commitment to Federalism in our Constitution has not been carried out in spirit or in practice. Therefore, after 66 years of Independence, the time has come for us to empower the States while the Centre concentrates on its appropriate domain (like foreign policy, defence, etc. for the genuine).
4. A major proportion of our nation consists of Minorities, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and OBCs, many of whom still continue to remain at the margins of our economy, society and polity. They must be empowered and mainstreamed so that they can live with pride and self-confidence.
"Therefore, a Special Thrust will be given for the social and economic empowerment of Minorities. A shining example of this comes from the sincere action taken in West Bengal regarding the reservation of OBCs which has, in turn, led to the inclusion of a large number of minorities within the reservation category. 17% of the population of Bengal fall under the OBC category. By implementing reservation for these OBC communities, 94% of the Muslim population of Bengal has been covered, who can now avail the benefits of reservation under the OBC category.
Similarly, reservation of OBCs in Higher Education, to the tune of 17% has been introduced in Bengal (in addition to the SC, ST reservation). This has opened up the possibility of 94% of the Muslim population of Bengal, to avail Higher Educational opportunities - this, without reducing the seats of the General category students by suitable expansion.
"Safety and security of linguistic minorities will be fully protected.
"A Special Thrust will be given for the social and economic empowerment of Backward Classes - dalits, tribals and OBCs.
"A Special Drive will be given to eliminate the backlog of caste certificates of the SC, ST and OBC communities across India.
"All underprivileged tribal population of the nation will be given a special status equivalent to the BPL.
5. Special thrust will be given to all local languages of our Nation. We have already implemented a policy in West Bengal of recognising languages as official languages in the Districts or Sub-divisions or Blocks or Municipalities as the case may be, where the population of such language speaking people exceeds 10% as a whole. Accordingly, in addition to Bengali, Nepali and Urdu we have also recognised Hindi, Santhali, Oriya and Punjabi languages as an official language as applicable.
6. The women of this nation represent almost half of its population.
"Empowering them in every walk of life in our society, economy and polity is at the core of our thinking for the future.
"A special thrust will be given on empowering the 'Girl Child'.
7. We belief that 'jobless growth' is intolerable and is dangerous for our democracy. Employment generation and growth must go hand in hand, complementing each other. For this, we will rethink our current economic policies. Employment must become the fulcrum of future economic growth, keeping in view India's demographic dividend.
8. Rising prices have hurt all Indians, irrespective of whether they are farmers, workers, white-collared professionals or home-makers. Hence, controlling inflation will be our top priority.
We were deeply troubled by the UPA-II's repeated increases in petroleum and diesel prices, badly hurting the lives of the common people. We were equally troubled by the sudden and irresponsible removal of subsidy on cooking gas cylinders adversely affecting the mothers and the sisters across the spectrum. When we could not tolerate this anymore and our voices of protest were not heard anymore, we chose to withdraw from all the Ministerial portfolios and withdrew from UPA-II altogether to protect the interest of the common man.
Our voices of protest against the withdrawal of subsidy on fertilizers used by our farmers were also ignored. We could not remain in the UPAII government while our farmers suffered every day.
9. At the same time we protested strongly against the policy of introducing FDI in retail, keeping in view the interest of millions of small and tiny retailers spread across the country. Our manifesto clearly opposed FDI in retail and UPA-II was fully aware of our commitment to the people on this matter. But our voices were simply ignored and the vested interest of global retailers was succumbed to by the UPA-II government. When we give a word to the people we strongly believe in upholding it and not betraying the trust of the people. Therefore, on the issue of FDI in retail too, we had to resign from UPA-II. Principles matter to us rather than devious political expediency.
10. Similar was the case on our repeated protests against FDI in insurance. We were equally strong in protesting against the placement of Provident Funds of Employees into the stock market, risking their life savings. But once again our voices were not heard in UPA-II.
11. We repeatedly expressed our apprehension and disagreement on SEZs which had become a land leveraging device for a handful of deceitful businessmen. Once again our voices were not heard and the mistake on this count continued to be made. Today most people agree that SEZs have failed the nation and have become a tool in the hands of a few vested interests and land mafias.
12. We will give a big thrust to Administrative Reforms to make government more accountable to the people. We will universalize and intensify all forms of e-governance in the country to bring further efficiency and transparency in governance.
We will create an e-structure which will monitor the outcomes of all government projects.
We will tighten all timelines of deliverables to the people.
13. To eradicate corruption we will set up Lokpal and Lokayukta in every State.
14. We will deepen the Panchayati Raj System and will give full protection to this important institutional mechanism.
15. We believe in massive comprehensive Electoral Reforms drawing on international best practices so that the corrupt and the criminals do not become people's representatives.
We believe that to reach this goal of corruption-free politics, the time has come for the nation to adopt Government Funding of Elections which is already functioning in many nations of the world, including U.K., Germany, France, Russian Republic, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, Mexico, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, etc.
16. We believe in major Judicial Reforms, the basis of which must be to bring timely and speedy justice to the poor in particular.
"A Review Committee will be set up for pro-people systemic changes in the Judiciary.
"We will set up Human Rights Courts to deal with all human rights violations.
"We believe that time has come to set up exclusive Women's Courts.
"We strongly believe in setting up Fast Track Courts across the country keeping in mind the delivery of speedy justice in cases of atrocities on women, so that strong punishment is meted out to culprits immediately. Justice delayed is justice denied.
"For this, we will target the appointing of significant number of Judges in the Lower Courts and Higher Courts within a time frame.
17. We believe in 'Health For All' in a time bound manner.
"Comprehensive change in providing health services to each and every village will be at the heart of this 'health for all' programme.
"Mother and child care will be at the heart of 'health for all'.
"Many more maternal care wards will be set up in different district and State hospitals.
"Every senior citizen, below a certain level of family income, will be provided with free medical care.
"Our commitment is to cover every Indian with health insurance on a compulsory basis in a time bound manner.
"Special focus will be given on preventative care and research on traditional medicines.
"A big push will be given to produce significantly larger number of doctors, nurses, paramedics, diagnostic technicians, trained dais, etc.
"A massive emphasis will be given to the entire vertical of health for all with a commitment to spend a significantly higher proportion of the GDP for health care.
18. We believe that one of the drivers of pro-people growth is rural roads. We will target 100% rural connectivity in a time bound manner.
We will also introduce Major Initiatives for Connectivity of All State and District Highways with National Highways.
19. It is a tragedy that drinking water is still not available to the rural people after sixty-six years of Independence. We propose to cover 100% of the population with safe drinking water in a time bound manner. Our effort will include appropriate technologies for providing safety and purity of drinking water, with a special thrust on the rural population.
We will create a Special Initiative for providing safe drinking water to all arid areas of the nation and those with special problems like salinity, arsenic, fluoride etc.
20. National Yuva Vista will focus on the youth of the country and produce a comprehensive and time bound Plan of Action to cover rural youth and urban youth across India.
21. A Talent Bank will be created for the youth for exchange and sharing of ideas, cutting-edge research and employment opportunities in the knowledge domain, also covering the Indian youth living abroad.
22. A massive emphasis needs to be given to the entire vertical of primary schools, secondary schools, vocational institutes, colleges and Central Universities with a commitment to spend a significantly higher proportion of the GDR
An Expert's Committee will be set up for an employment oriented Educational Policy in the country.
"New Central Universities of high quality will be set up across the country within a time frame.
"New All India Medical Institutes will be set up in all of the 4 regions of the country within a time frame.
"Madrasahs will be empowered and mainstreamed as per their own requirement.
"A nationwide programme of Long Term Educational Loans for Students will be put in place drawing on global best practices.
23. For the General Category of people in our Population a new scheme will be created for the economically backward population within the general category.
This scheme will address their needs of housing, education, health, skill development and employment. We will also provide special interest subsidy for educational loans for the youth of the General Category Population and also support their entrepreneurial development.
24. We will create a National Cultural Development Council which will work with each and every State to generate and stimulate local and traditional cultures of the States.
"The artists and folk performers, particularly at the rural level, will be provided with a stipend and medical insurance as we have successfully done in West Bengal.
"The regional cultural activities like regional films, theatres, jatras, etc. will be given a special push.
25. Backward Districts across the nation will be given special focus for suitably empowering and mainstreaming them.
26. The hill people of our nation need a helping hand. In addition to the '7 Sisters' and the other 3 Hill States of North India, a Special Scheme will be introduced for the remaining Hill People, including those of Darjeeling.
27. Despite a special financial dispensation for the North-Eastern States of India, their growth and development has not been satisfactory specially Tripura, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Sikkim. We will strongly focus on real, sustainable, people centric and environment friendly development of the North-Eastern States which have over 66% of forest cover, huge hydel power potential, major agroprocessing opportunities, traditional textiles capabilities, massive tourism potential, etc. and is also the Gateway to ASEAN Nations and can be the Gateway to the Look East Policy.
28. In the State of Jharkhand, the upliftment of the downtrodden people and the development of Jharkhand as a whole is not at all encouraging. Special focus will be given on the growth and development of the state in all spheres for suitably mainstreaming them.
29. Tourism is an employment intensive sector which employs people from all segments of society. In order to further stimulate tourism we will give Industry Status to the Tourism Sector and launch a National Tourism Initiative. The objective will be to strengthen current tourist destinations, develop new tourism destinations across the country and significantly strengthen the tourism infrastructure of our nation including Rural Tourism.
30. We will give top priority to the growth and development of the agricultural sector, allied services, fisheries and animal husbandry.
"We will ensure that farmers get an appropriate procurement price for rice, jute, wheat, etc.
"We will create a major Farmers Productivity Initiative to increase productivity of farmers exponentially.
"We will give a special focus on production, distribution and research of high quality seeds for farmers.
"We will also focus on crop diversification and multi-cropping to bring higher incomes to farmers.
"A fresh credit policy will be created for the farmers.
"Small farmers who have taken loans and are unable to repay them will be considered for a National Loan Waiver Scheme of the Government.
"We will implement a village centric and people centric policy of industrialization of the agricultural and allied services sector to combat rural unemployment.
"A New Scheme will be created for Skill Development and Educational Opportunities for the Children of the Farmers of our nation, with a futuristic and integrative vision.
"We will create a Landless Labour Livelihood Initiative.
"An integrated policy on the development of coastal and inland fish cultivation will be formulated to bring about a significant and sustainable growth of this sector. Welfare of the small and marginal fishermen will be kept in view.
"The National Livestock Policy will be reviewed and restructured keeping in view the interests of the farmers and small livestock growers of the country.
31. We will formulate and implement a National Policy for the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises. This will be a key driver for generating employment and entrepreneurship at the grassroots level.
32. The time has come for the formulation of a holistic and sustainable Industrial Policy. A thorough review of the current manufacturing policy is also called for. We will frame a National Industrial Policy keeping in view employment generation potential in manufacturing, mining, power sectors and engineering.
33. A new forward looking IT Policy focusing on both software and hardware will be put in place keeping in view the fast changing global technologies.
34. A special thrust will be given for the mainstreaming and empowerment of the entrepreneurs of the Unorganised and Informal Sector while ushering in welfare measures for the workers of this major area.
35. Labour Friendly Laws will be created through a High Powered Committee which will also have representation from various stake holders.
36. Nature has been tortured for many years. Therefore, eco friendly and people friendly Environmental Law will be developed.
37. A New Forward Looking Motor Vehicles Law will be created, given the quantum growth of motor vehicles in the country in recent years.
38. It is our objective to create an infrastructure and communication network vertically from village to district, district to State and State to the National, using cutting edge technology.
39. A major Highway Corridor Project will be initiated on a Mission Mode basis, connecting the North to the South and East to the West - Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Kohima to Dwarka. This North South East West Corridor will be called the 'Four Sisters'.
40. With an objective of creating a holistic, sustainable and forward looking reform in the Indian Railways, the VISION 2020 document which was formulated in the year 2009 and tabled in the Parliament, will be further enriched and fully implemented.
41. We will launch Water Transportation Corridors for Rivers to utilize their full potential for cargo transportation, tourist cruises and heritage tourism. These would include the rivers of Ganga and Hooghly, Brahmaputra and Teesta, Brahmani, Mahanadi, Krishna, Godavari, Narmada, Riverine Sunderban Delta, the Backwaters of Kerala and other such rivers and water-bodies across the country.
42. A new people friendly, industry friendly, environment friendly and employment friendly PPP policy will be put in place to augment government's investable resources.
43. A new National Investment Policy will be formulated keeping in view employment intensity, productivity and appropriate technology.
44. IPC and CrPC which were created in the colonial era will be revamped in the modern context. Stringent laws will be framed keeping in mind atrocities against women.
45. The Land Acquisition Act will be amended such that the legitimate interests of farmers will be fully protected. We have passed a Land Act in West Bengal which totally eliminates any scope for forcible acquisition of land by the government or any private entity.
46. We will not allow any forceful acquisition of land in the country.
47. A New Land Bank and Land Use Policy will be put in place.
48. New Forest Law will be enacted. Rights of Tribal people and forest dwellers will be restored.
49. New Energy Policy will be implemented with a target of 'Electricity for All'. All villages of India will be electrified in a time bound manner.
The New Energy Policy will also focus on issues relating to natural gas, thermal and hydel power, CBM and all forms of non-conventional sources of energy.
50. Development of Modern Infrastructure across the country will be given the highest priority.
51. An action plan will be formulated on Rainwater Harvesting and Water Distribution for domestic use and irrigation.
52. New Education Policy with a focus on employment orientation will be implemented.
53. A mechanism will be devised through which black money will be identified and unearthed from wherever it may have been parked, including those in foreign banks.
54. Tough laws will be made against adulteration of foods, fuels, medicines, etc. to save the common people.
55. A New Law will be formulated for the judicious use of natural resources.
56. A judicious Tax Policy will be brought in place that keeps in view the interests of the common people. We support the introduction of the GST on condition that there is a consensus among all States on the nature of the GST to be introduced. Interests of States cannot be trampled on this matter.
57. We will implement 'Banking for All' such that there will be NO unbanked villages in the country. Financial empowerment must reach the grassroots level using Post Offices as an instrument of financial inclusion.
58. A fresh, holistic and sustainable policy will be formulated on Urban Development with clear plans of decentralization of urban facilities. A focus will be given on solving the problems of the urban poor.
59. A new Foreign Trade Policy will be introduced which strongly supports the growth of exports from India, particularly those from Small & Medium Enterprises which tend to be labour intensive.
60. We are emphatic that bifurcation of States in India can take place only after such proposal is cleared by the concerned State Government.
61. Our Foreign Policy with all countries including the neighbouring countries will be guided by the following:-
"Peaceful co-existence with all.
"Self-interest of our nation.
"Greater promotion of social, economic, technological and cultural ties with all nations.
"Resolving territorial or other disputes through talks and negotiations.
"The World must be looked upon as one single family.
62. Our Defence Policy will be guided by the following:
"National Security will be upper most.
"A corruption free and transparent procurement policy for all defence equipments through e-tendering and other transparent e-processes based on full integrity. More efforts will be made on self-reliance and indigenous production.
"Emphasis will be spread equally for proper maintenance of defence assets on the basis of regular checking and monitoring mechanism and also for fresh acquisition on need basis.
"A proper plan of action for recruitment of defence personnel and taking full care of the welfare of the defence personnel and their families at all times is our imperative.
This 'people centric', 'development centric', 'growth centric' and 'employment centric' manifesto, covering the empowerment of all weaker sections of our great democracy, including SC, ST, OBC, Minorities, economically disadvantaged among the general category, will lead to a RESURGENT India.
It will bring back the moral fibre of the Nation. It will create a strong India, a just India and a dynamic India that will hold its head high once again in the comity of Nations.
Cast your vote by pressing the button on Trinamool symbol
Published by Subrata Bakshi, President, West Bengal Trinamool Congress & Printed by Mukul Roy, General Secretary, All India Trinamool Congress
(on behalf of Trinamool Congress)
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