Besides free Covid-19 vaccination, the BJP on Thursday released its manifesto for the Bihar Assembly polls, promising 19 lakh jobs in the next five years, almost double the numbers that RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s promised. Interestingly, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had wondered about how Tejaswi could possibly raise the money to pay for “10 lakh Government jobs”.
The manifesto, titled ‘Paanch sutra, ek lakshya, 11 sankalp’, was released by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the presence of senior leaders Bhupender Yadav, Nityanand Rai, Ashwini Choubey, and Pramod Kumar in Patna.
The manifesto envisions a self-reliant Bihar and lists out the roadmap for the next five years. The manifesto States: “Atmanirbhar Bihar Ka Roadmap 2020-25. Lakshya (objective) — Atmanirbhar Bihar. 5 Sutra — development of villages, cities, industries, education and agriculture.”
Sitharaman stressed that ally Nitish Kumar will be Chief Minister for the next five years and appealed the people to vote for NDA and make it win.
Interestingly, job has become a major poll issue in the state after opposition leader Tejashwi promised 10 lakh government jobs to lure the unemployed youth voters. BJP’s Bihar chief Sanjay Jaiswal said of the 19 lakh jobs listed in the manifesto, only four lakh - three lakh teachers and one lakh in health sector - are in the government sector. The rest are linked to promises to make Bihar an “IT hub” and to create an agriculture hub in the state.
Among others, the BJP promised to introduce Hindi as a medium of instruction for medical, engineering and other technical courses.
The BJP also promised the appointment of three lakh new teachers in one year in all types of schools, universities and institutes of higher education, 30 lakh pucca houses for poor by 2022 and one lakh jobs in the health sector.
The party proposed to develop the state, which has so far remained largely untouched by the boom in information technology, into an IT hub holding out the promise of five lakh jobs in the sector. The manifesto further said a large number of people will be provided employment in the health sector which is in for a major facelift through projects like the AIIMS at Darbhanga.
The manifesto promised to develop supply chain of special crop products like maize, fruits, vegetable, chuda, makhana, paan, masala, honey, mentha, medicinal plants across the state. It will add 1000 new farm producer organization in Bihar. It also promised a fresh impetus to the dairy sector with setting up of 15 milk processing units. The manifesto said that this will create 10 lakh employment opportunities in the state.
“Bihar is a politically sensitive state. Here people cannot be fobbed off with empty promises. Claims made by parties are likely to be weighed against their past track record. This is where the BJP scores,” Sitharaman said.
“GDP in Bihar has seen a sharp rise under NDA rule, it has grown from 3 to 11.3 per cent in the State in the last 15 years of NDA Government and not during the 15 years of jungle raj. It was made possible because our Government gave priority to good governance for people,” Sitharaman added.
Soon after Sitharaman released the party’s manifesto, Tejashwi took a jibe at the BJP, saying it doesn’t have a face in Bihar and the Finance Minister had to come to release the vision document. “Since she’s here, Sitharaman Ji should first tell why she never gave a special package and special state status to Bihar,” Tejashwi added.