Hyderabad: Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi announced six guarantees for poll-bound Telangana, including the Mahalakshmi scheme providing Rs 2,500 financial assistance to women every month, to be implemented if the party is voted to form the government.
“It has been my dream to see a Congress government in Telangana that will work for all sections of society,” she said during a public meeting in Tukkuguda, marking the 75th anniversary of the merger of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad with the Indian Union in 1948.
The Mahalakshmi scheme, the highlight of the guarantees, will provide financial assistance of Rs 2,500 a month to women, offer LPG domestic gas cylinder refills for Rs 500, and ensure free travel for women in state road transport corporation buses.
The guarantees encompass various other benefits, such as financial aid of Rs 15,000 for farmers and tenant farmers, Rs 12,000 for agricultural labour, Rs 500 bonus for paddy crops, free electricity up to 200 units for every household, house sites and Rs 500,000 for those without their own homes, 250 square yard plots for Telangana statehood warriors, interest-free Vidya Bharosa cards worth Rs 500,000 for students, Telangana International Schools in all mandals, Rs 4,000 pensions for the elderly, widows, weavers, and others, and a Rs 10,00,000 Rajiv Arogyasri insurance cover for the poor.
She asked: “Will you all support Congress?” The people in the crowd raised their hands. Rahul Gandhi expressed the party’s determination to challenge not only chief minister KChandrashekar Rao’s BRS in Telangana but also what he called the collaborative efforts of BRS, BJP, and AIMIM. He said these claim to be distinct parties, but are working together and supporting each other.