Congress manifesto focuses on urban poor

The Delhi Congress yesterday released the first of its three-part election manifesto for the upcoming civic polls, announcing a slew of measures for the uplift of the urban poor, including setting up of a Department of Urban Poverty Alleviation.“The party will also introduce health and accident insurance for daily-wage labourers in Delhi if it comes to power in the civic polls,” Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken told reporters here.Maken said it was only the first phase of the party’s election manifesto and that it would announce the rest of its “plans and roadmap” for Delhi’s development in two more phases today and tomorrow.“Tomorrow we will release our manifesto on urban infrastructure, which would talk about house tax, parking issues and other matters of developed areas of Delhi,” he said.“It will be followed by our ‘youth manifesto’, which will be launched day after tomorrow near the Delhi University,” Maken said.Municipal polls for 272 wards will be held on April 23 and the results will be declared on April 26.Dismissing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a minor player, Maken said it would be a straight contest between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.Talking about his party’s proposed schemes for urban poor, especially daily-wage labourers, Maken said the municipal corporations under the Congress rule would ensure three months’ salaries for them in case they did not find work.“For domestic workers, which are one of the most neglected sections, we will create a helpline number. We will also establish a comprehensive system for their formal registration, their verification and ensure their welfare,” he said.Maken also promised to issue 500,000 licences for street vendors, so “they don’t have to pay bribes every day to set up their stalls”.“For unauthorised colonies, we will set up a separate development fund worth Rs2,000 crore,” he said.The Congress leader said all this will be accomplished by boosting the revenue inflow of the three – East, North and South Delhi – municipal corporations.