Cong goes back to Indira's poll slogans

NEW DELHI: Ahead of assembly polls in some key states, the government on Thursday decided to restructure the existing 20-point programme (TPP) for the poor and deprived segments and bring back on its agenda Garibi Hatao, a populist programme launched by Indira Gandhi 30 years back.

A decision to change Garibi Unmolan (poverty alleviation) to Garibi Hatao (eradicate poverty) was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by prime minister.

“The 20-point programme is a package of social sector schemes and programmes having an important bearing on the poor and underprivileged,” I&B minsiter Priyaranjan Dasmunsi told reporters here.


The new programme would come into operation from April next year. To a question, he disagreed that the government decision was populist.

“When someone in the rural areas gets electricity and roads, they are happy,” he said. On whether the Garibi Hatao programme has failed to deliver in the past three decades, Dasmunsi said, “it has not failed. But it has sufficiently scored.”

“However, the need for restructuring was considered inevitable as over the years, several new policies and programmes have been introduced and brought within its (TPP) ambit,” he said.

The need for restructing the existing TPP was felt to ensure that it was in harmony with the priorities detailed in the UPA government’s National Common Minimum Programme, the minister said. The UN Millennium Development Goal and the SAARC Social Charter were also considered for inclusion in the TPP 2006, Dasmunsi said.

Asked whether population management was moving in the right direction, he said it was moving in a satisfactory note but not on a revolutionary note.

Government has achieved a lot but in the new context, highest priority needs to be given to infrastructure, health, drinking water, education and employment generation and not by merely distributing doles.

Under the earlier programme which had more than 100 different components, the restructured programme would contain 64 specific areas and components to give focussed attention with special emphasis on SC, ST and OBC, he said.

Besides Garibi Hatao, the programme includes food security, housing for all, provision of clean drinking water, education and health for all, women, child and youth welfare and e-commerce.

The programme was re-visited by Rajiv Gandhi in 1986 when some more social components were added to it. A group of ministers (GoM) was constituted under the chairmanship of defence minister Pranab Mukherjee with 14 Union ministers as members and the Planning Commission deputy chairman as special invitee to look into the restructuring of the TPP.

To a question, he said that there was no discussion on uniform criteria for below poverty line category as norms were different for those living in hills and on plains.