PATNA: Political strategist-turned activist Prashant Kishor on Wednesday launched his political outfit—Jan Suraaj Party—in the state capital and announced the appointment of an IITian and retired Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Manoj Bharti as its first working president.
Bharti, a native of Madhubani district in north Bihar, had earlier served as India’s ambassador to countries like Ukraine, Belarus, Timor-Leste and Indonesia. He will continue to serve as working president of the newly floated Jan Suraaj Party till March when organisational election will be held.
Addressing an impressive gathering at the local veterinary college ground, Kishor said that Jan Suraaj Party would end prohibition within an hour of the formation of its government in the state. “If elected, we will abolish prohibition within an hour,” he reaffirmed.
He revealed that the revenue collected after the end of prohibition would be spent on providing quality education to the children. “Our new education system will be world-class. People from abroad will come to Bihar to pursue higher education as the state was earlier known for,” he added.
Three things—education, land and capital—were the key factors to derive people from poverty and miserably all the three things were missing here. Taking a dig at the poor quality of education, Kishor said that while government schools were providing ‘khichri’ (mid-day meal) to students, colleges in the state were distributing degrees only.”
The state would require around 5 lakh crore in the next decade to improve the quality of education. The state is losing around Rs 20,000 crore per annum due to imposition of prohibition. The money collected from liquor will not go to the state’s budget but will be spent on developing education infrastructure, he added.
While children in the age group of 0-15 years will benefit from the new education system and hence will not prove as a burden on the state’s exchequer, people in the age group of 15-50 years will be made eligible to earn something between Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000 per month.
For the purpose, Jan Suraaj will exert pressure on banks to provide loans to such people. He rued that the banks operating in Bihar were not giving loans to its denizens in proportionate to deposits (CD ration). “We will ask the banks to provide loans to youths and women at annual interest of 4%, which will enable them to create job opportunities,” he added.
He alleged that money deposited by people of Bihar in banks were spent on the development of states like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which goes against the state’s interest. “The banks will be forced to give Rs 2.5 lakh crore as loan to youths and women as per CD ratio,” he pointed out.
Besides, people above 60 years of age will be provided pension of Rs 2000 to lead their life with dignity. To achieve this gaol, Rs 6000 crore will be required. “The state will get rid of perennial problem of migration after job opportunities were created for them in their home state,” he remarked.
Former poll strategist also talked about implementation of land reforms instead of special land survey being conducted by the Nitish Kumar government in the state. He exhorted the people to vote for any political party keeping future of their children in mind.
For the farmer’s welfare, Jan Suraaj Party leader pleaded for inclusion of NMREGA with agriculture so that labourers be supplied to farmers directly free of cost. He also emphasised the need of transformation from traditional farming to economic based farming.