India marks 60th anniversary urging war on poverty
INDIA: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, speaking on the 60th
anniversary of independence from British rule, said the country needed
to work harder to fight poverty, ignorance and disease despite fast
economic growth.
“India cannot become a nation with islands of high growth and vast
areas untouched by development, where the benefits of growth accrue only
to a few,” he said on Wednesday from the ramparts of New Delhi’s
historic Red Fort behind a bulletproof glass screen.
“We have moved forward in the many battles against poverty, ignorance
and disease. But can we say we have won the war?”
India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies, but has some
of the sharpest inequalities in the world, with hundreds of millions of
poor surviving on a fraction of a dollar a day.
Sharpshooters were stationed on nearby buildings as Singh spoke,
while troops and armed police guarded roads and key buildings around the
country on a day traditionally marked by violent attacks by separatist
militants or Maoist rebels.
Earlier, Singh laid wreaths at memorials commemorating the leader of
India’s freedom movement Mahatma Gandhi, as well as its first Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter, assassinated former Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi.
The prime minister, dressed in his trademark light blue turban, then
proceeded to the Mughal-era fort where he unfurled the national flag to
a 21-gun salute.
Prime Minister promised a six-billion-dollar package to bolster
India’s ailing agriculture sector adding that farmers “are the backbone
of the country.” He announced a programme to invest 250 billion rupees
in agriculture, “to enhance the livelihood of our farmers and increase
food production.”
He also pledged new cash for education, health care and rural
development, saying it was in line with his government commitment “to
the welfare of the common man.”
He also vowed renewed efforts to promote industrialisation and build
“first-rate infrastructure”.
“The problem of malnutrition is a national shame,” he added. “I
appeal to the nation to resolve and work hard to eradicate malnutrition
within five years.”
Despite growth rates of around eight percent in recent years, around
46 percent of children under three are undernourished, UNICEF says, a
higher rate than in sub-Saharan Africa.
“We are a young nation,” he said. “Once unleashed, the energy of our
youth will drive India onto a new growth path.”
“However we must not be overconfident. We have a long march ahead. We
need at least a decade of hard work and of sustained growth to realise
our dreams.”
Security has been dramatically stepped up around the country for the
Independence Day holiday, with police monitoring traffic entering Delhi
and the financial centre of Mumbai, both of which have been frequently
targeted by militants.
Singh said a special effort was needed to bring prosperity to less
developed regions like Kashmir and the northeast.
In eastern India, Maoist insurgents have distributed leaflets in
towns and villages asking people to boycott the celebrations.
Meanwhile Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Gordon Brown
congratulated India on the 60th anniversary of its independence from
Britain on Wednesday.
In a statement released by the foreign ministry, Britain’s monarch
told Indian President Prathiba Devisingh Patil that she had “much
pleasure in sending you and the people of the Republic of India my very
best wishes on the occasion of your 60th anniversary of independence.”
Brown, meanwhile, told his counterpart Manmohan Singh: “I celebrate
the strength of the UK-India relationship. Our history, values and hopes
are, and will remain, permanently intertwined.”
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband also passed on his best
wishes.
The foreign ministry described improving cultural ties between the
two countries, evidenced by the fact that one million people travelled
between Britain and India last year.
New Delhi, Wednesday, Reuters, AFP
|
