Prabhu praises Sonia Gandhi for power reforms

Congress President and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi received appreciation from an unexpected quarter. Suresh Prabhu, Shiv Sena leader and former Union Power Minister, praised the role of Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha when the Electricity Act, 2003 was passed.

While speaking as the chief guest at National Electrical Summit 2012, he said that the country needed sweeping reforms to resolve the power crisis, but there was a lack of political will and Prime Minister was not doing anything to address the issue. He acknowledged the co-operation extended by Sonia Gandhi, then the Leader of Opposition. "I met Sonia Gandhi on several occasions," Prabhu said adding that she supported the bill.

Sonia Gandhi was an effective and able opposition leader and very cautiously she could turn the tide against the BJP led government with her timely interventions. The effective role of the Congress President, while in opposition, also helped the Congress to come back to power in 2004 and also could improve the tally in 2009.

Sonia Gandhi, the UPA Chairperson, also heads the National Advisory Council (NAC), which was instrumental in pro-poor policies of the Congress led UPA government like MGNREGA, RTI, RTE and is now seriously putting its sincere efforts to get the Food Security Bill implemented.

The NAC, chaired by the Congress President, has already given its inputs on draft legislations to protect children against sexual offences, prevent sexual harassment of women at the workplace and has suggested amendments to existing laws on prohibiting child labour.

The NAC, under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, had also sent recommendations to the government on social sector policies relating to the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan, denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, the Jarawa tribe, domestic workers, shelters and other services for the urban homeless, unorganised sector workers, and on improving the sex ratio at birth.

This article is posted by pressbrief.in