To catch the fancy of the youth and the defence personnel who form a considerable chunk of the electorate ahead of the February 15
election, Chief Minister Harish Rawat announced that he would distribute smartphones with one year’s calling and data free to each youth of the State and would open a separate Ministry to cater to the cause of the defence personnel.
Congress leaders say that the announcement might prove a game changer for the election as a counter to the BJP flaunting the NDA Government’s acceptance of One Rank One Pension (OROP) demand as one of its achievements.
Ahead of the Assembly election, CM released nine- point pledge in the presence of State party president Kishore Upadhyaya at the party office on Saturday.
Replying to the media query whether it was the Congress manifesto or something else, CM Rawat termed it as a start-up of the Congress manifesto. Observers say that declaration of the pledge would help the ruling party to make the upcoming election a straight contest between the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the CM Harish Rawat.
“It is of advantage to the CM as his image is being lionised at the expense of the State BJP which is floundering in factionalism that accounts for its failure to project a CM face. Contrast this with CM reigning supreme in the campaigning machinery of the party, outshining even the high command, and things would be cleared how Rawat has already outmaneuvered the saffron camp,” said an observer.
Noteworthy, one of the CM’s pledges to open a separate Ministry to look after the interests of the Defence personnel might set off a row as the matter comes under the Defence Ministry.
Among other pledges, the youths would be trained for employment and the State Government would provide `2,500 per month to each of the unemployed skilled youth if Congress returns to power. Besides, he pledged to provide job either in Government, non- Government or private sector for one member of each family by 2020.
To stop recurrence of the disaster-2013, he pledged to create a force Aapda Mitra (disaster friends) which would comprise five members in each village of the State by 2020. Besides, he would provide water, electricity and network of road by 2020 if elected to power.
He pledged to ensure 33 percent reservation for the women in the Government jobs. He would also make the number of tourist footfalls rise three times as compared to the present figure in the next five years.
This aside, Rawat pledged to give ownership rights to the slum dwellers by 2017 and would open a separate coaching institute for SC, ST and OBC students to prepare them for the competitive exams.