Former Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi stages protest for migrant labourers

PATNA: Former Bihar CM and HAM(S) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi on Wednesday sat on a day- long sit- in dharna at his government bunglow at Strand road to protest against the alleged poor amenities and low quality food given to the migrant labourers and workers at the quarantine centres across the state. The protest took place in all district offices of the party.
He accused the state government for poorly treating the labourers and pressed for his eight- point charter of demands, including job for the migrants in MGNREGA, dry ration for underprivileged, basic facilities at medical clinics and hospitals and Rs 1,000 to each migrants coming from other states among others.
Manjhi said lakhs of labourers were forced to leave Bihar, as the Nitish- led NDA government failed to generate any employment in the state in last 15 years. “The state government talks about setting- up of 13 industries in Bihar to give employment to labourers. How can they give employment to more than 15 lakh labourers, with only 13 industries? Bihar needs more than 1,300 industries,” he said.
He added: “If the state government failed to provide employment to these migrants then the law and order situation in Bihar would be in deplorable condition.”
The HAM(S) chief demanded that the state government should provide ration cards to all underprivileged people as soon as possible and financial assistance to the unemployed.
Manjhi also targeted the Centre for not taking the Covid- 19 seriously in January and went ahead with their programme ‘Namaste Trump’. “The negligence by the Centre led to spread of the disease in the country,” he said.