By IANS
Guntur (Andhra Pradesh) : Congratulating the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh for the state’s development, party president Sonia Gandhi Saturday called for continuing on the path of progress and making the state a model for the entire country.
Addressing a massive public meeting here during her whirlwind tour of coastal Andhra Pradesh to launch a series of development and welfare schemes, she asked Congress workers to take these schemes to people. “The true humanity and true politics is to help those whose voice often goes unheard,” she said.
“I am proud the way Andhra Pradesh is developing. It is the responsibility of all of us to continue this pace and make the state a model for other states,” she said in her speech in Hindi.
“If we work hard the people here will continue to support the Congress party and take the state and the country to new heights,” she said.
Gandhi’s visit and the launch of the welfare schemes by the Congress government are seen as beginning of the efforts by the party to woo people ahead of the 2009 elections.
Gandhi, also the chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), said the central government would continue to extend all possible support to the state for its development schemes.
She praised Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s government for its thrust on welfare of farmers, agriculture, irrigation and rural development.
“The development of farmers and villages is our goal. We want to ensure that every poor lives a life of dignity and all his basic needs are fulfilled,” she said.
“I have a special attachment with Andhra Pradesh and it is there since the days of Indiramma and Rajivji,” she said, referring to her mother-in-law and her husband.
Earlier, she launched the second phase of the Indiramma scheme at Thumuluru village in this district.
She inaugurated a housing colony under the Rajiv Gurhakalapa housing scheme and interacted with women beneficiaries at Rajahmundyy in East Godavari district. She later interacted with women’s self-help groups and launched urban Indira Kranti Pathakam (IKP), women’s thrift scheme, at Eluru in West Godavari district.
“The biggest desire of a woman is to have a house, a shelter above her head and it is therefore with great happiness that I am launching the second phase of the Indiramma scheme,” she said in her brief address at the public meeting at Thumuluru village.
“I am happy to come here as Gandhiji, Nehruji and Indiraji had visited this village,” she said.
“The responsibility on a woman’s shoulder is more than a man’s responsibility. She has to work in fields, take up jobs outside the house and also attend the household works and look after the children,” she said.
During the interaction with beneficiaries of the housing scheme, Gandhi wanted to know in whose names the houses were being allotted. “The houses are being given in the name of women,” replied a woman beneficiary.
Under the Integrated Novel Development In Rural Areas and Model Municipal Areas (‘Indiramma’), the government is constructing houses for the poor, paying pension to widows and the disabled and providing basic amenities to people in rural and urban areas.
The Congress president also distributed cheques among the beneficiaries under Indiramma and IKP. The members of women thrift groups explained to her how IKP was helping them in their economic empowerment.
Earlier, Gandhi first reached Rajahamundry town and inaugurated the Rajiv Gurhakalapa low-income housing satellite township and interacted with beneficiaries.
She shook hands with women beneficiaries and interacted with them. Since the women spoke in Telugu, Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy and state Congress president K. Keshava Rao translated the same in English for Gandhi.
One of the young women beneficiaries was so overjoyed by meeting Gandhi that she held her face with both hands and kissed her on the cheek.
Under Indiramma, houses are being constructed for rural and urban poor. Under the first phase of the scheme two million houses are nearing completion. The state government claims that its success in implementing the programme is a benchmark for the entire country.
Pensions are being disbursed to 3.12 million deserving poor including widows, weavers and the disabled under this programme.
Under the second phase, the government plans to construct 2.55 million houses in villages and towns. Pensions of Rs.200 per month will be given to 1.4 million people.