Mumbai, April 22 : The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is now an ally of the NDA and the ruling partner in the MahaYuti government in Maharashtra, has demanded the caste-based census and Minimum Support Price for farmers.

The party released its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections on Monday and said that the party will pursue its demands for giving the prestigious Bharat Ratna award to former Chief Minister Yashwantrao Chavan and also for providing the classical language status to Marathi language status. Besides, the party strongly believes that the MahaYuti government is capable of making Maharashtra a $1 trillion economy.

The manifesto was released by the party's national president Ajit Pawar in the presence of working president Praful Patel, state president Sunil Tatkare and senior minister Chhagan Bhujbal. It extends support for the Minimum Support Price to farmers as their right and assures them of safeguarding it.

NCP demands an increase in the grant of Rs 12,000 comprising Rs 6,000 from the Centre and Rs 6,000 from the state government paid to the farmers annually under the Kisaan Samman Nidhi. It favours widening the scope of the Agricultural Crop Insurance Scheme and making it more farmer-friendly. Further, the party proposes to make efforts to increase the loans to Rs 20 lakh from Rs 10 lakh under the Mudra Yojana Scheme.

To reduce farmers' dependency on conventional sources of power, NCP said that efforts will be made to provide sustainable sources of power supply and provide a fillip to solar energy, kinetic energy, hydropower projects, etc., to increase agricultural productivity and income. Further, the party proposes to make efforts for Maharashtra to become the skill development capital of India and to grow industries with modern skill development technology by increasing the scope of Vishwakarma Yojana for 12 Balutedar (artisans, craftsmen) classes.

The party will try to increase educated and skilled youth's remuneration to Rs 20,000 per month in private companies on a contractual basis from the current Rws 12,000 in the state.

''To do away with patriarchy, it has been made mandatory for people to use their mother's name before the father to honour motherhood. NCP resolves to replicate the revolutionary decision at the national level,'' reads the manifesto.

On the 33 per cent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and state Assembly, the party claims it has been in its favour for a long time.

Amid recent controversies over paper leaks during various recruitment exams, the NCP demands a strict law be enacted to curb paper leaks and make the recruitment process more transparent.

Terming the senior citizens as the 'Silver economy', NCP proposes a 50 per cent discount on railway and metro travel to those above 60 years all over the country and implementation of the Ayushman Bharat Scheme for citizens aged above 70 years.

NCP proposes to take up river-linking and river-purification projects on a large scale at the national level. ''It is our endeavour to ensure that projects like Krishna-Bhima stabilisation, Nar-Par scheme, and Western Ghats rainwater diversion to drought-prone areas are taken up as ambitious projects having a positive impact,'' the party says.

Forest areas receive the highest rainfall. However, according to the Forest Act, reservoirs cannot be created in forest areas, which leads to water shortages and drought-like situations during summers. To tackle this, the NCP demands amendments to the existing law and implementation of the 'Birsa Munda Water Conservation Scheme'.'

/IANS