Sonia follows up on plenary agenda - writes to ministers, chief ministers

NEW DELHI - Following up on her agenda at party’s plenary last month, Congress party president Sonia Gandhi has written letters to union ministers and chief ministers to pay more attention to party workers’ grievances and proposals, and to also give up discretionary powers in land allotment.

At the Congress plenary Dec 19, Gandhi had announced a four-point agenda to fight corruption. She had also raised the issue of party workers feeling slighted by the indifference of union ministers to their grievances and proposals.

According to party sources, Gandhi had written letters to union ministers and chief ministers of Congress-ruled states last week, as a follow-up to her announcements at the plenary session.

At the plenary in December, she had asserted that the government, besieged by various corruption allegations in Adarsh housing and 2G spectrum allocation, will take on corruption “head on”.

I would like all Congress chief ministers to set an example by reviewing and relinquishing such powers (discretionary powers of land allocation),” she had said in her speech, targeting Karnataka’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government where Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa faces charges of favouring kin with prime land.

Gandhi, in her inaugural address to the plenary, had also said it was necessary that the views of grassroots workers in states should be heeded because they are the “ears” and know the ground realities.