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Cong CMs asked to cut costs

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi Saturday exhorted chief ministers of the party-ruled states to contain revenue deficit, impose fiscal discipline and eliminate unproductive areas in the government to make them more effective.

Party spokesman S Jaipal Reddy was speaking to reporters on the outcome of the meeting of 11 Congress chief ministers, summoned by Sonia, to make the party-ruled states appropriate models for others to follow.

Reddy pointed out that she told them that containing revenue deficit was of paramount importance.

Reddy said Sonia pointed out that without containing revenue deficit, the party's developmental programmes could never take off. This had to be further attuned by imposing financial discipline as soaring budgets of the party-ruled states had a similar negative impact, she said.

The Congress chief also emphasised that to make the party-ruled states more effective, the government would have to be downsized and unproductivity in various departments eliminated.

"We feel that with our party's resurgence, our policies and programmes have to be boosted in the Congress-ruled states. This is why our party chief summoned this meeting of our chief ministers and told them what they must do specifically to make their governments more effective," he pointed out.

She told the chief ministers that the party programmes for the poor and downtrodden would have to be upgraded to send the right signal to the people in the states.

Reddy also referred to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's meeting on Saturday with Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani to register his protest over the central government's agreement with the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isaac-Muivah).

Gogoi told reporters that he had apprised Advani of his apprehension that the government-NSCN(IM) agreement to extend the ceasefire by a year would endanger Assam's territorial integrity, which would not be tolerated by the people of the state.

He said the Union home minister told him that he would look into the matter.

"Since the central government did not take the Assam chief minister into confidence before signing the agreement with the NSCN-IM, we feel it is unwarranted," the Congress spokesman pointed out.

Sonia's summoning the meeting of Congress chief ministers is being seen by political observers here as her continuing exercise not only to tighten her grasp on the party but also to send the signal to the electorate that the Congress cannot be taken for granted.

"If our party is in power in 11 states today, it is because our party chief has been holding the Congress chief ministers accountable for their performance. So now there is a palpable feeling among our (Congress) chief ministers that they have to work hard and deliver the goods, thanks to Madam Sonia Gandhi," said senior Congress leader Ambika Soni.

The Congress leadership's strategy to make the party-ruled states models for the other non-Congress states to follow has been widely welcomed by party members. They feel the confusion and "lack of direction'' in the National Democratic Alliance government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will subsequently pay rich dividends to Sonia and her party, which is gearing up to mount a challenge to the BJP and its allies.

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