Bhopal: Free education for girls from economically disadvantaged families, 100 units of power at Rs 100 and a boost to infrastructure in the form of new expressways, Metro lines and airports form the key highlights of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) manifesto for Madhya Pradesh, unveiled Saturday.
The state goes to polls for its 230 assembly seats on 17 November while counting of votes will take place on 3 December.
BJP national president J.P. Nadda unveiled the 96-page ‘Sankalp Patra’ in Bhopal in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Jyotiraditya Scindia, and state BJP chief V.D. Sharma.
“Political parties first use the manifesto to lure voters and then conveniently forget it. The BJP is a party which, once it comes to power, forms a sub-committee and works towards implementing the manifesto. Under the supervision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first priority is empowerment of the poor, then, reformation and transformation of policy to imbibe it in our activities,” Nadda said at the launch.
Besides free education for girls from economically disadvantaged families, from kindergarten to post graduate level, the manifesto also promises free education until Class 12 and an yearly assistance of Rs 1,200 for purchase of school bags, books and uniform for all children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Apart from midday meals, it also promises breakfast for government school students.
Further, the party has promised to set up a Madhya Pradesh Institute of Technology, on the lines of IIT, in each region, while also promising that to establish a Madhya Pradesh Institute of Medical Science and Hospital, on the lines of AIIMS, in each division.
Every Lok Sabha constituency will be equipped with a medical college and every district with a nursing college in the next five years, with 2,000 more medical seats, said the manifesto unveiled Saturday.
The BJP has also promised to fill 2.5 lakh government vacancies in the next five years in addition to providing employment opportunities to two lakh youngsters and an investment of Rs 7,500 crore in the tourism sector.
Augmenting the Ladli Laxmi Yojana, which is a financial scheme for girls from the time of their birth up to the age of 21, the manifesto promises another Rs 2 lakh as also the benefits of PM Awas Yojana to the scheme’s 1.3 crore beneficiaries.
CM Chouhan launched the Ladli Laxmi Yojana in 2007. Under the scheme, money was deposited in a girl child’s name in different phases, totalling Rs 1.43 lakh by the time she turned 21.
The manifesto also announces plans to construct six new expressways — Vindhya Expressway, Narmada Path, Atal Pragati Path, Malwa-Nimar Path, Bundelkhand Path and Madhya Pradesh Path — along with Metro lines in Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior and Jabalpur.
Industrial corridors will be developed along the expressways that will create 4.5 lakh employment opportunities, it adds.
In coordination with the central government, the BJP has promised to modernise 80 railway stations in the state, while also launching Vande sleeper trains. Airports, it adds, will be set up in Rewa, Singrauli and Shahdol.
Addressing the press ahead of the manifesto launch, CM Chouhan said Saturday, “I personally feel very satisfied that we were able to achieve so much for women empowerment.”
“What we had envisioned and promised, we ensured we fulfilled all… these welfare schemes were formulated after looking at the ground reality and after holding jan panchayats,” he added.
He also said that the Ladli Laxmi Yojana came into being as a way to check female foeticide.
MP became the first state to give women 50 percent reservation in local body elections, 30 percent in the police force and 50 percent in teaching jobs, he added. This, he pointed out, was followed by Ladli Laxmi Yojana that gave Rs 1,250 to women and empowered them.
“Now we are working to make Ladli Lakhpatis (millionaires),” he said, adding that by upskilling the beneficiaries of the Ladli Behna Yojana, the BJP will ensure they become lakhpatis.
Also read: Ladli Behna scheme has women rallying behind Shivraj, but not all men are happy
Eye on farmers, unorganised sector
The manifesto assures a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for wheat at Rs 2,700 per quintal and rice at Rs 3,100 per quintal, 100 units of electricity at Re 1 per unit and LPG cylinder at Rs 450 each to the beneficiaries of PM Ujjwala Yojana and Ladli Behna Yojana.
It also promises to extend the benefits of PM Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana, which provides free 5kg foodgrains to beneficiary families, for another five years.
It adds that farmers who are beneficiaries of PM Samman Nidhi along with CM Kisan Kalyan Yojana, will receive a yearly sum of Rs 12,000 while the monthly pension to handicapped and elderly citizens will be increased to Rs 1,500, if the BJP is voted to power.
Further, the manifesto assures social security to workers of the unorganised sector by including them in development schemes. Beneficiaries of the PM Vishwakarma Yojana will be given financial assistance of Rs 15,000 and a daily payment of Rs 500, it adds.
The manifesto also says that all non-functional transformers in the state will be rectified in ‘mission mode’ by next year.
Rolling out health benefits, the BJP has announced that in case of medical bills of Ayushmann beneficiaries, the state government will bear the amount in excess of Rs 5 lakh. In addition to that, the number of ICU beds will be doubled in government hospitals while each block will be equipped with a dialysis unit along with free dialysis service, if the BJP returns to power in the state.
The commissionerate system presently in force in Bhopal and Indore will be extended to Jabalpur and Gwalior while a Rashtriya Raksha University will be set up in the capital city, the manifesto adds.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
Also read: ‘Pro-incumbency in Madhya Pradesh,’ says Jyotiraditya, heaps praise on Shivraj for state’s development