BHUBANESWAR: The 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 girls and a 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 elections, 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 to 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 in the 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 in the State,” Shah said.
With farmers’ issue taking centre stage of 2019 elections and the State Government not cooperating with the Centre for implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Kishan Samman 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 the party will provide irrigation to all agricultural land in five years time with a dedicated fund of `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 turned 60 years of age.
Coming down heavily on the BJD Government for increasing atrocities on women, especially sexual attack on minors, the saffron party promised to implement the Central law which 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 two crore jobs 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 years of coming to power,” said Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
On creation of self-employment opportunities, the BJP manifesto said it will create a Skill Odisha Fund with a corpus of `3,500 crore which will be utilised in skill development programmes for 20 lakh youth
in five years.
This apart, a revolving fund of `3,000 crore will be set up for extending loan up to `3 lakh per head with nominal interest of `one per cent.
The election manifesto committee headed by senior BJP leader Biswa Bhusan Harichandan said the party will urge people to elect a Government which understated their language and is free from bureaucratic control.