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Sonia promises quota for women in Parliament

Sonia Gandhi today virtually unveiled a 'parallel agenda', saying that if the party was voted to power it would extend reservation for women in both Houses of Parliament and the state assemblies.

Addressing a massive gathering at the Nagarjuna Government Degree College Grounds in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, Sonia also announced that the Congress would launch a programme called 'Desh Ke Liye Ek Saal (one year for nation building)' wherein the youth would devote one year after their graduation on nation-building projects like literacy campaign and family management schemes.

Accompanied by son Rahul, Sonia received a tumultuous welcome with the crowds -- including a large number of colourfully dressed Lambadi (gypsy) women -- spilling over the grounds. She launched her second leg of electioneering in Andhra Pradesh from Guntur.

As the crowd braved the scorching heat, Sonia promised that the Congress would provide special insurance and social security schemes for the girl child and also special credit for unemployed women.

Waving to the crowd as they responded to his mother's speech, Rahul, dressed in a khadi kurta pyjamas, reminded people of his late father Rajiv Gandhi. The crowd surged forward across the barricaded grounds to get a glimpse of the Gandhi duo.

In an apparant reference to the suicides by cotton growers in some parts of the state due to crop losses, Sonia said farmers were the backbone of ''our economy and they must be the overriding concern of any government. We are committed to giving farmers better seeds, more credit, assured irrigation, reliable power, remunerative prices and protection against natural calamities.''

UNI

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