Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during Independence Day celebrations at Gandhi Maidan in Patna. (PTI Photo)
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday announced up to Rs 10 lakh assistance to youths from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities for setting up any industry. Addressing people on India’s 72nd Independence Day in Patna, Nitish said the government had created a venture capital worth Rs 500 crore to help SC/ST youths to set up new industries. He said the government would also provide training to these youths.
On Wednesday, he urged people from SC, ST and extremely backward class to look for self-employment. “Bihar roads are now good till village level. If you want to earn a living by ferrying passengers, we will give monetary assistance of Rs 1 lakh to help you purchase vehicles, with a capacity for four to 10 passengers,” he said.
Claiming that the government was conducting a survey to know how many people had lost jobs post liquor prohibition, the chief minister said finance assistance would also be extended to people who wanted to start a new business. “The government will give assistance of Rs 60,000 to Rs 1 lakh to anyone who wants to start alternative employment post liquor ban. We are also surveying those families who have no BPL (below poverty line) cards,” he said.
The Indian Express had earlier reported that the Bihar government had conducted an internal survey to get social profiles of people arrested under the liquor law. The state also watered down provisions of the stringent law to prevent arrest of first-time drinkers — they would now be let off the hook by paying Rs 50,000 fine.
The state government, Kumar said, had been also striving to open medical and engineering colleges and ITI and para-medical institutes in every district so that students from Bihar did not have to go outside for higher education.
He urged students to take benefit of the Bihar Student Credit Card Scheme (BSCCS). Under the scheme, every student in Bihar pursuing higher education — both technical and general — is eligible to obtain a loan of Rs 4 lakh from the state government. The general rate of interest is four per cent, but it is just one per cent for differently-abled, transgender and female students.
“As banks had adopted a lackadaisical approach towards the loan disbursement, we have formed Bihar Education Finance Corporation for speedy implementation of the credit card scheme. So you go ahead and study. If some are not able to repay the loan, the government would waive it off,” the CM said.