A meeting on people’s manifesto jointly convened by the Wada Na Todo Abhyan, New Delhi and Zilla Sambadika Sangha was inaugurated here.
“Political parties just before election release their manifestos and make several promises for the public. But after winning, they tend to forget them. The Opposition parties have a greater role to monitor the promises made by the ruling party which is hardly done. Manifestos are developed with least consultation at ground level. That is why we have resolved to develop a people’s manifesto including civil society groups, tribal leaders, academicians, business entrepreneurs, women, youth, differently abled, legal experts, minority groups, mediapersons, political party leaders, religious leaders, etc and advocate at different levels to include the aspirations of common people from the ground in the manifestos of the political parties,” said Pratiphalan Editor Kirti Sahu.
Gandhi Institute of Science and Technology principal Dr PN Singh opined that when the country had 65per cent of youth voters, there should be proportionate reservation in the Parliament and State Assemblies. Similarly, women reservation bill should be promulgated at the earliest. A people’s representative must be a sevak first and all kind of extra-special facilities for them should be scrapped. As the water is the lifeline of the public, it is not the industries but the people who should get priority in using it, he said.
BJP leader Kaliram Majhi suggested making vote casting compulsory. Surendra Sahu mentioned the local issues like construction of Gumuda bridge, Rayagada-Gunupur railway line, another foot-over bridge and suggested to include these in the manifesto.
Bidulata Huika told to keep maximum age bar to contest in election as sixty, provision for no confidence motion against the PRI members and subsidised food in lieu of labour. Senior social activist Bijay Baboo demanded autonomy to gram/palli sabha with financial power. Planning by palli sabha must be mandatory, he said. Besides, he demanded pipe drinking water to each household with sanitation and irrigation facilities.
Dr Gouranga Rout demanded promulgation of Inter-State Migration Act and identification and distribution of Bhoodan land on a war footing.
labour leader RS Panda suggested uniform wage code for private sectors and strict and transparent CSR policy. Krushna Sabara and Balakrushna Patra emphasised upon teaching tribal children in mother tongue based multi-ligual education during pre-primary and primary stage. BMS leader Jogesh Das told not to give tickets to more than one person from a family, appointment of an additional anganwadi worker (AWW) in each anganwadi centre and fixing AWW salary at par with a primary teacher. Many of the participants did not approve of increasing electricity cess. Almost all the participants suggested inclusion of quality education and health in the people’s manifesto. A district level core team was formed to take the process forward in block and gram panchayat levels.