10 lakh jobs, 200 MGNREGA man-days: RJD releases Bihar poll manifesto; RLSP focuses on education

PATNA: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which heads the Opposition Grand Alliance coalition in the Bihar elections, on Saturday released its poll manifesto reiterating its promise of 10 lakh jobs and loan waiver for the farmers, while Upendra Kushwaha, chief of the RLSP leading the Grand Democratic Secular Front, promised to give a major revamp in the education sector if voted to power. The RJD’s manifesto was released by Tejashwi Yadav at a press conference in the party office in Patna.

The cover page of the manifesto does not have a photo of the party’s founder and its charismatic leader Lalu Prasad. Tejashwi made it clear that the funds for new jobs will come from the state’s budget of `2.13 lakh crore, out of which, only 60 per cent have been spent till now. The RJD said the promised 10 lakh jobs will be created “in a time bound manner”.

And its process will begin in the first Cabinet meeting. Wooing farmers, it promised the minimum support price for crops. If voted to power, Tejashwi said the government, led by the RJD, will waive off full farm loan and education loan up to `5 lakh, besides allocating a huge 22 per cent of the state budget for education. “Nitish Kumar has been raising doubts on our promise of providing 10 lakh jobs, so how his future government will fulfil ally BJP’s declaration of 19 lakh jobs?” Tejashwi asked.

The party has promised one-time support of `4,000 at the time of institutional delivery. Releasing the RLSP’s manifesto, Kushwaha said: “We are promising to ensure studies, medicine, earning, irrigation, action and hearing on a priority basis.” He also claimed that the RLSP will be the first party to start the Swami Sahajanand Saraswati Krishi Rozgar Yojana parallel to the MNREGA.

In a big promise, he said the teachers would be completely exempted from non-teacher works in order to keep education unhindered. “There would be a mandatory the biometric method for registering the presence of teachers and students in educational institutions of all levels,” he said.