Sonia Gandhi takes stock of implementation of poll promises in Congress-ruled states

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday met the chief ministers of the Congress-ruled states to review the implementation of various development schemes and fulfilment of poll promises by the state governments.

Reviewing the details, Sonia Gandhi emphasized on the need to put in place an effective system for monitoring and implementation of the key manifesto commitments that the Congress party had made in the run up to the Assembly elections.

In this regard the concrete and outstanding achievements of the respective state governments, even in face of constant destabilizing efforts on part of the BJP, were enumerated and discussed.

The details of systems put into place to ensure effective coordination between the Party Organizations and the Governments in these states were also discussed, so as to ensure that working in tandem, all the programs of the Government and commitment of the Party could to taken seamlessly to the people.

It was pointed out that apart from the constant diabolic game of destabilization that the BJP plays, its government at the Centre also leaves no stones unturned to create road blocks in the implementation of Central Schemes and Programs by the Congress ruled States. The need of an effective strategy to deal with this problem that includes exposing the BJP in front of the people was underlined.

The various steps that the Congress state governments had undertaken or could take to mitigate the disastrous impact of the current economic slowdown were also discussed and the need to act on them with urgency was felt.

The Congress President also asked the respective state governments to assign duties on regular basis to ministers on roster basis to sit in PCC Offices to address public grievance.

The Congress President emphasized that the alternate governance model, which are people centric and inclusive, put forth by these States coupled with the national agitational endeavor of the Party were the most effective way to deal with and defeat the anti people governments of the BJP.

Also present in the meeting were former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, senior leaders A.K. Antony, K.C. Venugopal and Ahmed Patel.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh too apprised the Congress president of his government's performance in implementing the party's election promises in the state.

The Chief Minister made the appraisal during a meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi to review the performance of various Congress-ruled states in executing the party's plans and policies and assess the general governance.

Amarinder later told media persons in an informal chat that he had apprised Gandhi that of the 161 promises made by his government before assuming power, 140 had been implemented while the remaining were in the process of being execution.

The Chief Minister also informed the Congress president of the key programmes implemented successfully by his government, including employment generation, drug eradication, farm debt waiver and the extension of PMJAY health insurance cover to 42 lakh families in the state, among others.

According to a statement released by the Punjab government, the Chief Minister said Gandhi particularly appreciated the success of his government in raising on-ground investment to the tune of over Rs 50,000 crore during the first two years of his dispensation and the extension of PMJAY scheme to cover almost the entire population in the state.

Amarinder said they had also discussed the problems faced by the state government in implementing some of the projects of the government of India due to financial and other constraints.

The issue of greater coordination between the party and the government in the Congress-ruled states also came up for discussion, said the Chief Minister.

He added that he had assured the party president that his government was working closely with the elected representatives to reach out to the people across the state and ensure the fulfilment of their aspirations.

The MLAs were giving regular inputs and feedback to the administrative authorities to facilitate greater coordination between them, leading to focused efforts to address the problems of the people, Amarinder said.

The Punjab Chief Minister described the review meeting as a fruitful exercise to strengthen the governance system in the Congress-ruled states.