Patna: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised free Covid-19 vaccines to people of Bihar if voted to power.
In its manifesto released in Patna Thursday, the party said every resident of Bihar will get a vaccine, approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), free of cost.
The manifesto, titled ‘Paanch Sutra, Ek Lakshya, 11 Sankalp (Five threads, one goal and 11 resolutions)’, was released by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a press conference n Patna.
“In the fight against Corona, Bihar’s NDA government has set an example for the rest of the country,” reads the manifesto. “It is our resolution that the moment Covid-19 vaccine is available after approval from ICMR, every ‘Biharwaasi’ will get free vaccination.”
The party has also promised that technical education, medical and engineering courses will also be imparted in Hindi in Bihar to ensure a large number of students are able to benefit from it.
Staying with the educational front, the party has promised to provide free tablets to meritorious students of Class 9 and above.
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‘Will create 19 lakh jobs in Bihar’
The party has also promised 19 lakh jobs if voted to power in Bihar. It promised to recruit 3 lakh new teachers, and create other jobs in health, IT and agriculture sectors.
“The GDP in Bihar has seen a sharp rise in the last 15 years of NDA rule in Bihar as compared with 15 years of Lalu rule. That is because we gave good governance and not jungle raj. It was made possible only because the government gave priority to good governance for people,” Sitharaman said at the press conference.
The opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has promised 10 lakh jobs in its manifesto and party leader Tejashwi Yadav has been raising the issue of unemployment in all his rallies.
Speaking about this, Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal said: “These people who are busy making tall promises of jobs, when they are in power they only think about their families and when in opposition, they are busy giving jobs on paper.”
Sitharaman said, “Bihar is one state where every individual is politically sensitive and well informed too. They know and understand the promises a party makes. To get their ‘bharosa (trust)’ is not easy. If anyone raises questions on our manifesto, we can answer them with confidence as we fulfil what we promised.”
The party has promised to recruit the 3 lakh teachers in all schools and universities within one year of government formation. Giving a push to women self-help groups, it has also promised to make 1 crore women self-reliant. The party said it is also committed to giving 30 lakh people pucca houses by 2022.
The finance minister once again reiterated that if the NDA is voted to power, JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar will be the chief minister for all five years.
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If I had been a Bihari, would have taken my chances with the virus sans vaccination, as the whole world has so far. Not vote for a fourth term for a government whose record on basic governance has been so abysmal.