Manmohan Singh Vows to Battle Corruption

New Delhi: Lack of political consensus had hurt India's economic growth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in an Independence Day speech that was focused essentially on domestic concerns. Addressing the nation on India's 66th Independence Day from the Red Fort, Manmohan Singh also vowed to battle corruption while ensuring that sincere officials were not affected by baseless allegations of wrongdoing. Making his ninth speech from the Red Fort, the prime minister spoke of inflation and Maoist insurgency, referred to Kashmir and Assam, but steered clear of foreign policy, including Pakistan, or India's global stature - a favourite topic at most times. Instead, with an eye on the 2014 general elections, he emphasised on pressing domestic concerns. While lauding the improvement in situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the falling violence in India's northeast, he said Maoists remained a major concern. "Communal harmony has to be maintained at all costs... The incidents which occurred in Pune in the beginning of this month point to the need for much more work to be done in the area of national security," he said, referring to the recent Pune blasts. According to the prime minister, India was unable to create the environment for rapid economic growth "because of a lack of political consensus on many issues". The economist-turned-politician, who became prime minister in May 2004, did not dwell on the issues that were eluding a political consensus. Again, without elaborating, he referred to "domestic developments which are hindering our economic growth". Despite 20 years of widely acclaimed economic reforms, the political establishment is still divided on certain growth issues. In recent times, the government has faced flak from the opposition as well as its allies such as Trinamool Congress on allowing foreign direct investment in retail trade, strongly favoured by the US. India, he said, cannot escape the global economic crisis. But the country's GDP growth would still be "a little better" than last year's 6.5 percent. The 12th Five Year Plan would lay down measures to increase the economic growth rate from 6.5 to 9 percent in the last year of the Plan, he added. Manmohan Singh, however, warned that controlling inflation would have become tougher because of this year's poor monsoon. "This period of difficulties will not last long," he added. A day after yoga guru Baba Ramdev ended his fast against corruption and black money, the prime minister said his government would take steps to battle corruption. "We will continue our efforts to bring more transparency and accountability in the work of public servants and to reduce corruption," he said, reading out a prepared speech in Hindi from a bulletproof cubicle. "But we will also take care that those measures do not result in a situation in which the morale of public functionaries... gets affected because of baseless allegations and unnecessary litigation." He hoped that the Rajya Sabha would soon pass the Lokpal and Lokayukta bills already cleared by the Lok Sabha. In a reference to Assam, where ethnic violence claimed over 70 lives, he said authorities were doing everything possible to provide relief to everyone. Manmohan Singh also outlined his government's successes -- almost all villages had been electrified, and the government's target was to provide electricity to every household in India in the next five years. The government was also formulating a scheme to give away free medicines through government hospitals and health centres. The government will soon launch a housing scheme to provide housing loans to the poor in urban areas, he said. "To provide housing for our poor brothers and sisters residing in urban areas of our country we will soon launch the Rajiv Housing Loan Scheme. Under this scheme, people belonging to the economically weaker sections would be given relief on interest for housing loans of less than 5 lakh," he said in his speech from the Red Fort. "It will be our endeavour to ensure that all households benefit from bank accounts in the next two years." Electricity will be provided to every household in the country in the next five years, the prime minister said. He continued that more than one lakh new villages were provided electricity connections under the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme. "Our next target is to provide electricity to each and every household in our country in the next five years and to also improve the supply of electricity," he said. The prime minister also called for speedy infrastructure development, and said the planned Indian mission to Mars "will be a huge step for us in the area of science and technology". The government proposes to train eight crore people in skill development over the next five years, he said. "This is an ambitious scheme which can be implemented only through a specialised agency of the central government," he said in his address from the Red Fort. The government was considering setting up a National Skill Development Authority so that skill development programmes across India can be implemented in a coordinated manner, he added. "We would also need contribution from the private sector and NGOs in this work." Manmohan Singh concluded his speech on a positive note. "No power in the world can stop our country from achieving new heights of progress and development."