The 10-member Ministerial committee set up to look into the affairs of the Congress party following its poor show in the by-elections, favoured the party launching its own TV channel and a newspaper to take forward the party’s programmes to the people. It also suggested a thorough revamp of the organisational set-up from the grass-root level.
These suggestions were among the 50-odd recommendations made by the panel chaired by Roads & Buildings Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao. The committee presented its report to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana on Wednesday at Gandhi Bhavan.
Recommendations
Without mentioning the details, Mr. Prasad Rao said that people had the right to know what the government was doing. “What is wrong if the party intends to own a media house to publicise its work,” he asked, hinting at such a possibility. Interestingly, the recommendation came in the wake of a virtual anti-Congress campaign launched by the media house owned by YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy.
He said the committee gave 34 recommendations to the government and 17 to the party. Major recommendations include constituting Gram Panchayat Congress Committees in addition to the block, mandal, district and State-level panels.
Agreeing with the demand of party cadres, the committee recommended disciplinary action against fence-sitters after duly identifying them. Appointing in-charges for Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies, where the party had no representation, and providing training to cadres were some other suggestions.
Local body polls
The committee favoured holding local bodies’ polls after overcoming the legal hurdles. The panel advised the Ministers and elected representatives to cover at least 100 constituencies every month to review the welfare and development programmes.
The report makes a mention about devising a strategy to regain the confidence of the weaker sections which had drifted away from it. It wanted women to be accorded higher priority and programmes to be in tune with the needs of the people.
