Congress silent on combating corruption: Lok Satta

The Lok Satta Party today faulted the Congress for not coming up with a coherent and integrated policy to combat poverty and unemployment. Reacting to the Congress Party’s 2009 election manifesto, the party said it was significantly silent on mitigating corruption, leave alone eradicating it.

Lok Satta Party spokesmen P. Ravi Maruth and Dr. P. Bhaskara Rao said that the manifesto did not promise free and quality education and health care to all, irrespective of their caste or religion. It was true that nearly 225,000 people had been enabled to undergo surgeries under Rajiv Arogyasri. Advertising this, the Congress sought to conceal the fact that millions of people do not benefit under Arogyasri.

The Lok Satta leaders also pointed out that the Congress Party has not spelt out any strategy to tackle the growing unemployment in the wake of the economic downturn in the country. That more than 11 lakh young men and women applied for 844 Group IV posts in the State mirrored the magnitude of the problem.

Mr. Ravi Maruth and Dr. Bhaskara Rao said the manifesto was silent on tackling corruption, which has become widespread. It had not talked of making agriculture remunerative and warding off suicides by farmers. It publicized loans at three percent to women as revolutionary even as the Government ruined their lives by promoting liquor consumption.