BHUBANESWAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday sought to end the 19 years of "misrule" of BJD government by promising employment to one person of a family, interest free farm loan to small and marginal farmers, capital punishment to offenders of sexual crime on minor girl child and slew of other sops to realise its vision of "New Odisha."
Releasing the New Odisha Sankalpa Patra, the party's manifesto for the state four days ahead of the first phase election, BJP national president Amit Shah said Odisha is one of the worst performing states in the country due to all-round failures of BJD government.
"I have come here to appeal the people of the state to elect a government which does not clash with the Centre and stonewall the process of development. The people have lost hope on BJD government which has failed to deliver in the last 19 years. Give BJP a chance and I assure you we will bring a rapid transformation of the state," Shah said.
With the farmers issue taking centre stage of 2019 election and the state government not cooperating the centre for the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Kishan Saman Nidhi Yojana (PM-Kisan), the BJP promised to implement the farmers income augmentation scheme if voted to power.
The BJP which crowdsourced inputs for its manifesto said that the party will provide irrigation to all agricultural land in five years time with a dedicated fund of Rs 1 lakh crore. It promised to extend the Pradhan Mantri Shram Mandhan Yojana to the farm sector by covering all agricultural workers under the pension scheme after they tuned 60 years of age.
Coming down heavily on the BJD government for the increasing atrocities on women especially sexual attack on minor girls, the saffron party promised to implement the central law which will provide capital punishment to offenders of sexual assault on girls below 15 years of age.
As the Narendra Modi government is under fire from the opposition for its failure to keep promise of providing 2 crore job to unemployed youth per annum, the BJP manifesto said it will provide job to one person of a family.
"The BJP will fill up all the existing vacancies in the state government within two of coming to power," said Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
On creation of self-employment opportunity, the BJP manifesto said it will create a "Skill Odisha Fund" with a corpus of Rs 3,500 crore which will be utilised in skill development programmes for 20 lakh youths in five years.
This apart, a revolving fund of Rs 3000 crore will be set up for extending loan upto Rs 3 lakh per head with nominal interest of Rs one percent.
The election manifesto committee headed by senior BJP leader Biswa Bhusan Harichandan said the party will urge the people to elect a government which understated their language and free from bureaucratic control.