Apart from demanding renaming of Dadar Railway station in Mumbai as Chaityabhoomi station, Sharad Pawar-led NCP has tried to cover several issues related to Dalits and other backward classes in its charter of demands.
The charter, put out at the rally on the party's 12th foundation day here, calls upon the state government to re-publish Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar's writings and speeches, and make them available to the common man.
`Annabhau Sathe Academy' should be set up to promote writers and artists who focus on deprived and neglected sections of the society. State should set up awards in the names of social reformer Jyotiba Phule and his wife Savitribai Phule, it demands.
The party has also called for strengthening of the machinery which is responsible for providing the caste verification certificates. It wants separate committees to be set up in each district so that the certificates could be obtained within a month of application. The party wants the certificates to be given at the end of the last year in school, for the benefit of students.
Instead of a separate caste certificate for a person, the party wants a certificate per family, based on the ration card.
The party also wants the government to chalk out measures to prevent dropping out from schools among the backward classes.
A separate machinery should be set up by the state government to monitor implementation of central government's laws related to right to education, charter says.
NCP wants increase in the amount of subsidy for constructing houses in rural areas under the Indira Awas Yogana, from the existing Rs70,000 to Rs1.5 lakh.
Every year, one lakh houses should be constructed for the backward classes, the charter demands.
Besides, the income limit for backward classes to avail of various welfare schemes should be raised from Rs54,000 per year to Rs two lakh in urban areas, and from Rs39,000 to Rsone lakh in the rural areas, it says.
It also seeks reservation in MIDC plots for the backward classes.
