Koraput: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said his party will pass the Women’s Reservation Bill if voted to power in the Lok Sabha elections.
He also assured free education to women, especially those coming from the economically weaker sections, if his party is voted to power in the Odisha Assembly elections.
“Be it the technical education, school or college education or any kind of higher education, the State government will provide free education to girls if the Congress forms the government in Odisha,” he said.
Interacting with women workers of the party, women doctors, teachers and girl students on International Women’s Day, Rahul asserted his party’s “zero tolerance” for atrocities on women while raising concerns over the alleged rise in incidences of atrocities against women in Odisha.
He claimed eight women are raped in Odisha every day but only seven of them get justice in a year.
Taking an apparent dig at the Odisha government, which is pushing for passage of the women’s reservation bill, he said the state Cabinet has only two women members.
“I assure you that if we come to power at the Centre, we will get the women’s reservation bill passed in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha”.
Later addressing a rally in Jeypore, Rahul made a strong pitch for voting his party to power in Odisha, saying his government, if voted to office, would provide a widow pension scheme of Rs 2000. Besides, a special officer will be engaged in all gram panchayats to look into the issues of women, in particular cases arising out of sexual assault.
He also talked about setting up of a financial corporation in Odisha to extend credit to women opening small and medium enterprises. Besides, Rahul said financial assistance will be provided to girls for poorer sections during the marriage.
Accusing the Naveen Patnaik government of failing to address poverty in the state, Rahul said his government will work for all sections. “We will listen to your mann ki baat instead of sharing ours and run the government,” he said.
He also reiterated some of the party’s promise such as universal basic income guarantee scheme for the poor and Rs 2500 as minimum support price for farmers and farm loan waiver.
During his speech, Rahul targetted both the State government as well as the Modi government at the Centre, accusing them of ignoring poor and favouring the industrialists. The Naveen government, he alleged, has snatched away the lands of the poor and gifted to the industrial houses without taking the consent of the affected people as enshrined in the Land Acquisition Act.
Raking up the Rafale deal, he said Modi government has favoured Anil Ambani to produce the fighter jets without any expertise in this domain. By doing so, he claimed, Modi government had deprived Hindustan Aeronautics Limited of developing the jets and robbed the youths in the state from getting employment opportunities in the HAL plant located in Koraput district.
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