Champaran: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar made a major promise from the election platform, saying that 1 crore youth will be provided with jobs and employment in the next 5 years.
Nitish Kumar was addressing a workers’ conference at the Ramna Maidan auditorium in Bettiah and at Chailaha in the Banjaria block of East Champaran, He claimed that the previous promise of 20 lakh jobs and employment has been fully fulfilled. According to him, more than 10 lakh government jobs and employment have been provided to 39 lakh youth so far. This figure will surpass 50 lakh before the elections.
Bihar CM said, with the support of the central government, Bihar’s development is accelerating and added, “Bihar will also make a significant contribution to the nation’s progress”.
Unveiling a raft of new development measures, CM announced 337 projects worth Rs.1,198 crore in West Champaran and 311 projects worth Rs.628 crore in East Champaran. He also said 430 projects costing Rs.50,000 crore had recently been approved, pledging: “Wherever there is a gap, it will be addressed, and there will be no laxity in development work.”
The CM also mentioned his past decisions. He said that 50% reservation in Panchayat and Municipal bodies led to the election of a large number of women. In 2013, 35% reservation was implemented in government jobs, which has led to the Bihar Police having the highest number of women in the country.
Regarding women’s economic participation, Nitish said that the Jeevika project was launched in 2006 with a loan from the World Bank. Today, there are 14 lakh Jeevika Didi’s active in the state and 385,000 groups in urban areas. The interest rate on their loans has also been reduced from 10% to 7%.
Recalling the state’s law-and-order challenges before 2005, he said: “People were afraid to leave their homes after dusk. Hindu-Muslim conflicts were common. We fenced graveyards and temples, which ended disputes. We also took major steps in education, reinstating contractual teachers and appointing 520,000 teachers to date.”
