Ahead of the Puducherry elections, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday released its manifesto. Finance Minister and BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman released the manifesto today along with Union Ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal and Giriraj Singh.
After releasing the manifesto, Nirmala Sitharaman said the document talks about 'nyay' (justice) as it has been prepared after taking into account suggestions received from the members of the public.
"The BJP manifesto speaks about 'nyay' as it has been made after taking suggestions from the public. We did not make the manifesto sitting in an AC room. People see Modi Ji delivering his promises," Sitharaman said.
According to a report by The Hindu, BJP in its manifesto promised a slew of measures aimed at empowerment of women, improving the educational needs of students, making the region a spiritual hub, and encouraging economic activity.
BJP also promised to make public transport free for women, 50 % reservation for women employees in government institutions and waive loans taken by Women Self-Help Groups, which were affected by COVID-19. The party promised to set up a separate school education board that would also conduct Class 10 and 12 final exams.
The BJP promised Rs 2,000 top-up assistance to farmers under the PM KISAN scheme, the launch of 5-year Water Security Plan for Puducherry and setting up Integrated Cattle development centre under the Rashtriya Gokul Mission.
For fishermen, the BJP promised to provide Mudra loans for street fish vendors, fishermen's wives, and an increase of 'lean period' allowance from Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 during the fishing banned period and subsidies for fibre boats, diesel and cold storage.
The party also talked about doubling farmers income and milk and dairy production in Puducherry in five years.
The BJP also promised new industrial and investment policies including the comprehensive framework of subsidies and incentives, creating a safe, predictable and enabling environment for ease of doing business and the launch of Global Invest Puducherry Summit within the first year of forming the government.
The manifesto also mentioned setting up a new Puducherry Financial Corporation (PFC) to cater to MSMEs, start-ups, SHGs, fishermen cooperatives, artisans, etc and a Mega Textile Park with all the integrated facilities and quick turnaround time for minimizing transportation losses.
The manifesto promised to ensure free and quality education to all female students from KG to PG, provide laptops free of cost to college students of all higher education institutes, and a provision for a free scooty to all girls pursuing higher education in Puducherry.
According to the manifesto, if BJP is elected then it will remove all encroachment of temple lands and set up a special temple restoration fund to renovate and repair temples.
The party said 30 per cent reservation for Puducherry-based students in government and private colleges and all government vacancies will be made once it is elected to power.
Community sports centres to be established, public gyms will be set up in every constituency, read the manifesto.
Polling for 30 assembly seats in Puducherry will be held on April 6.Of the 30 assembly seats, five are reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidates. As many as 10,02,589 electors will choose the candidates for the 15 legislative Assembly of Puducherry.
The Congress-led government in the union territory fell before completing its five-year term under Chief Minister V Narayansamy.
Narayanasamy had resigned on February 22 ahead of a floor test in the 33-member House (including three nominated) following the resignations of five Congress and one Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) legislators. On February 23, President Ram Nath Kovind accepted the resignation of Narayanasamy and his council of ministers.
In the 2016 assembly polls, Congress had won 15 seats, All India NR Congress eight seats, AIADMK got four seats, DMK walked away with two MLAs. BJP could not win any seats.
(With inputs from Agencies)