Women power is set to be unleashed with government promising early passage of the Women's Reservation Bill and several other measures as part of its ambitious 25-point agenda for the first 100 days in office unveiled today.
President Pratibha Patil adressed a joint sitting of Parliament today, outlining theu00a0u00a0UPA Government's broad areas of priorityu00a0in the next five years.
Following are the highlights of the 100 days programmes of the new government:
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Early passage of the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament providing for one-third reservation to women in State legislatures and in Parliament.
Constitutional amendment to provide 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayats and urban local bodies. Concerted effort to increase representation of women in Central government jobs.
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A National Mission on Empowerment of Women for implementation of women-centric programmes in a mission mode to achieve better coordination.
A voluntary national youth corps which could take up creative social action around river cleaning and beautification programme beginning with the river Ganga.
Restructuring the Backward Regions Grant Fund, which overlaps with other development investment, to focus on decentralised planning and capacity building of elected panchayat representatives.
The next three years would be devoted to training panchayati raj functionaries in administering flagship programmes.
A public data policy to place all information covering non-strategic areas in the public domain.
Increasing transparency and public accountability of NREGA by enforcing social audit and ensuring grievance redressal by setting up district level ombudsman.
Strengthening Right to Information by suitably amending the law to provide for disclosure by government in all non-strategic areas.
Strengthening public accountability of flagship programmes by the creation of an Independent Evaluation Office catalysed by the Planning Commission. Establishing mechanisms for performance monitoring and performance evaluation in government on a regular basis.
Five Annual Reports to be presented by government as Reports to the People on Education, Health, Employment, Environment and Infrastructure to generate a national debate.
Facilitating a Voluntary Technical Corps of professionals in all urban areas through JNNURM to support city development activities.
Enabling non government organisations in the area of development action seeking government support through a web-based transaction on a government portal in which the status of the application will be transparently monitorable. Provision of scholarships and social security schemes through accounts in post offices and banks and phased transition to smart cards.
Revamping of banks and post offices to become outreach units for financial inclusion complemented by business correspondents aided by technology.
Electronic governance through Bharat Nirman common service centres in all panchayats in the next three years. A model Public Services Law, that covers functionaries providing important social services like education, health, rural development etc. and commits them to their duties, will be drawn up in consultation with states.
A National Council for Human Resources in Health as an overarching regulatory body for the health sector to reform the current regulatory framework and enhance supply of skilled personnel.
A National Council for Higher Education as recommended by the Yashpal Committee and the National Knowledge Commission to bring in reform of regulatory institutions.
Develop a "brain gain" policy to attract talent from all over the world into the 14 universities proposed in the 11th plan to position them as "Innovation Universities" A roadmap for judicial reform to be outlined in six months and implemented in a time-bound manner.
Targeted identification cards would subsume and replace omnibus Below Poverty Line list. NREGA has a job card and the proposed Food Security Act would also create a new card.
A Delivery Monitoring Unit in the Prime Minister's Office to monitor flagship programmes and iconic projects and report on their status publicly Suitably institutionalised quarterly reporting on Flagship programmes as "Bharat Nirman Quarterly Reports" where Ministers would publicly report on progress through the media.
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