Sonia Gandhi moved to quell
talk about a growing distance between the Congress and the prime minister and
ruled out early general elections, seeking to draw a firm line under the two of
the biggest uncertainties spooking the UPA.
.jpg)
Addressing a meeting to commemorate
the ninth anniversary of the UPA, Gandhi said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has
been “carrying out his responsibilities with great dignity despite hostilities”
and that her party “respects him and stands by him”. “There are calculated
efforts, innuendos, misinformation and untruths being spread,” she told the
Congress leaders assembled on the lawns of the prime minister’s official
residence. Speaking to reporters after the function, her son and leader in
waiting, Rahul Gandhi, too, rejected suggestions that two-leader system has
become dysfunctional.
Here's what Prime Minister said about the various things:-
Amidst allegations of
corruption in the allocation of telecom spectrum and coal mines, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh promised to punish wrongdoers and said future allotment of
scarce natural resources would be only through auction. The UPA II government
has faced a plethora of corruption charges in the allocation of 2G spectrum
when A. Raja was Telecom Minister and in the allocation of coal blocks when Dr.
Singh himself held the charge of the Coal Ministry.
Dr. Singh said in his address
on the occasion of the UPA II government completing 4 years in office that, allegations
of impropriety are being investigated and wrongdoers will be punished. He said
much had been made out of problems that arose with the way scarce resources
such as spectrum and mining blocks were allocated in the past and there had
been allegations of deliberate malfeasance.
.jpg)
He added that, UPA have
introduced more transparent systems for the future, i.e., auctions, rather than
relying on administrative allocations. The problems with past allocations are
being dealt with, as they should be, under the law. But we can claim credit
that the root causes of the problem, which was the perceived non-transparency
in the manner of allocation, has been addressed and these problems will not
arise in the future.
Stating that improving the
quality of governance was a major challenge, Dr. Singh said, both the Centre
and the States have to act to deal with this problem. The UPA government has
done more in this area than any other government.
On Cabinet Expansion:- Amid reports of a Cabinet
expansion with the exit of Union Ministers P.K. Bansal and Ashwani Kumar, the
Prime Minister said there were vacancies in his team but was non-committal
about whether he would induct new members.
On Economy:- Indicating that the worst
might be over for the Indian economy, the Prime Minister said the economic
situation was turning around with inflation coming under control and the GDP
growth likely to exceed 6% this fiscal. Dr. Singh said 8% growth rate was
possible if the Congress-led coalition was voted to power again next year.
.jpg)
On Agriculture:- Stating that agricultural
growth was critical for rural prosperity, the Prime Minister said the
government was targeting 4% growth in the sector and was attempting to increase
food grains production as well as diversifying agriculture. He said that, this
is the foundation which allowed the government to introduce Food Security
legislation in Parliament. The government had also introduced the Land
Acquisition and Rehabilitation Bill to replace the old and highly unfair
colonial legislation. The new Act would be much fairer to those whose land was
acquired.
.jpg)
Related Links:-
No comments:
Post a Comment