India Leader Announces Sweeping Reform Plans

Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi announced sweeping reforms Saturday in what amounted to a policy statement in his first nationwide radio and television address since his record election victory.

Gandhi, 40, named the economic, environmental and education sectors as the most important for the country’s future and called for a national campaign to improve Indian life.

Meanwhile, the independent newspaper Indian Express said Gandhi will visit the United States in June and then travel to the Soviet Union. It said the trip will be announced as soon as details are settled and that it is planned to “dispel the impression that the new government has chosen to tilt one way of the other.”

In his broadcast speech Saturday, Gandhi said that “far-reaching proposals for change have been formulated and are under consideration.” These proposals involve increasing productivity, applying modern technology and fully exploiting industrial capacity--all aspects that had to “acquire the status of a national campaign,” he said.

Among the changes Gandhi announced were:

--A restructuring of the 20-point anti-poverty program initiated by his mother and predecessor, the assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

--A “popular movement” to save the environment, including a massive reforestation program to convert 12 million acres of bare country annually into woodland and arable land.

--A project aimed at saving the holy Ganges River, which Gandhi called “one of the most polluted.”

--A complete overhaul, under his personal supervision, of the nation’s entire administrative system, including decentralizing planning and drastic simplification to speed up decisions because “results will take precedence over procedures.”

Before his address, Gandhi had announced measures to eliminate corruption and lack of efficiency, and it was generally believed that he would make personnel changes in the ruling Congress-I Party, in his capacity as its president.

Gandhi stressed that the basic foreign policies of his mother would be continued, and every effort would be made to overcome problems with neighboring states in a friendly and peaceful way.

Earlier Saturday, in a message to President Reagan, given to Reagan’s special envoy, former Sen. Charles H. Percy, Gandhi referred to the many areas in which U.S.-Indian relations have improved, and said he hopes this potential will be exploited. Gandhi also sent a message to Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Tikhonov, assuring Moscow that India will continue to consolidate friendly relations with its close friend and biggest arms supplier.