NRC among BJP’s 567 poll promises
RANCHI:: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday promised to increase reservation to Other Backward Class (OBC) communities in government jobs and educational institutions, implement 33% reservation to women in select government jobs, construct metro rail coaches in Adityapur and two steel plants in Chatra and Chaibasa, as well as implement the National Register for Citizens (NRC) in the state, in its manifesto released ahead of the fivephase election in Jharkhand that begins on November 30.
The NRC, an exercise to determine and deport illegal immigrants was recently undertaken in Assam, and has been a longstanding promise of the BJP, which won 37 out of the state’s 81 in the 2014 assembly elections.
The state chief minister Raghubar Das, Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and other party functionaries were present at the launch of the manifesto in Ranchi. It was announced that an intensive survey of OBC population has been ordered and increased reservation -- the exact number was not specified — will come into effect within six months after the survey report is tabled.
The OBC population, which forms 49% of the state’s population according to the 2015-16 National Family and Health Survey, is currently entitled to 14% reservation.
Other parties in the state including the Congress, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) party have each promised a rise in the OBC reservation in government jobs to 27%.
The JMM released its manifesto on Tuesday, promising to minimise attacks on local land and tenancy Acts that protect the adivasis and moolvasis.
Ally Congress released its manifesto on Sunday and promised loan waivers up to ~2 lakh to the farmers, and jobs to at least one person in each household, besides withdrawing cases filed against rights activists by the state government.
In all, the manifesto makes 567 promises across 13 sectors. These include 22,000 km new road construction by 2024, a Sports university, an Agriculture and Farmer Development policy and a Jharkhand Kisaan Vikas Board within the next three years.
Prasad, who released the party’s vision document said: “It is impressive to see in the vision document that the BJP government in the state wanted to boost the sports sector. It has been seen that Jharkhand youth, particularly tribal, have great talent in sports.”
“The progress of the state can be measured by mere inspection of two reports. According to a report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Jharkhand made the biggest strides among all states in reducing multidimensional poverty. On the other hand, the state is at number four position in terms of ease of doing business and substantially fared well in information technology (IT) sector,” the minister added.
Das said that in order to set up a robust law and order system, the government will create police commissioners in select cities. “A metro rail coach in Adityapur will be constructed and two steel plants at Chatra and Chaibasa (Manoharpur) will also be set up,” he said.
Das claimed that the BJP-led government has fulfilled more than 90% of the promises made in its 2014 manifesto.“The state in last five years had witnessed a series of mob lynching, hunger deaths and farmer suicides. But, the chief minister is boasting of fulfilling 90% of the promises made in BJP’s 2014 manifesto. BJP has utterly failed to meet the peoples’ aspiration,” Jharkhand Congress spokesperson Kishore Shahdeo said.