In an unprecedented poll announcement, Congress president Rahul Gandhi promised that 20 per cent families belonging to poor sections will be given Rs 72,000 each annually as minimum income if Congress comes to power. Five crore families and 25 crore people will directly benefit from the scheme, he said. "It is an extremely powerful, ground-breaking and well-thought through idea. We have consulted many economists on the scheme. We have studied the fiscal implications of the scheme. Final assault on poverty has begun," he said in a press conference.
Kicking off the Congress' election campaign in Telangana for the Lok Sabha polls days before, Rahul Gandhi had said his party would implement a minimum income guarantee scheme for the poor if it is voted to power.
He alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was into “making two Indias”―one where only the rich are benefited and the other in which farmers who seek loan waiver with folded hands are let down.
The Congress would not let this happen, Gandhi said.
“We have decided that the Congress party will give guaranteed minimum income to every poor person in India. After the 2019 polls, the (Congress-led) Government of India will fix minimum income. It will not be below any of the income levels (below poverty line),” he said.
Asserting that not a single person would be left behind, the Congress president said, “We will deposit money into accounts of those whose earnings are less than the minimum income.”
-Inputs from PTI