During the Independence Day celebrations in Bihar on August 15, Monday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar made a commitment to provide 20 lakh jobs to youth in the state. After hoisting the national flag at the historic Gandhi Maidan here, Kumar addressed the gathering and said that he was "wishing not only to give 10 lakh jobs but he wants to double the number," reported IANS.
"Our ambition is to provide jobs to 20 lakh in government and private sectors in the state. Now, people of the new generation (Tejashwi Yadav) have come with us, hence, we will jointly execute our work to provide jobs to the people of Bihar. Our eventual goal is to bring Bihar to the developed state category," Kumar said.
This comes after BJP leaders in the state took a jab at Tejashwi Yadav's promise of providing 20 lakh jobs to the people of the state, following the recent change in the government in the state, with Kumar's Janata Dal (United) ditching the BJP to form the government with Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal and other parties in the Opposition.
"We have committed to do the justified development in the state along with maintaining brotherhood in the society. There are many challenges before us but as we have glorious history and have a complete legacy, we will achieve our historic period again," Kumar said.
"The birth rate in Bihar is 2.9% at present, hence, there is no need to implement a population control policy here. The real thing is to educate people and create awareness about the population. The caste-based census is the need of the hour and the Bihar government will conduct it. The agencies will calculate the actual number of every caste and community and it will also calculate the economic status of every person in Bihar," Kumar said.
Tejashwi Yadav, who is now the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, said, "It is a historic decision of our Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to give 20 lakh jobs to the people of Bihar. This is the real issue of the common people. Our youths are wishing the same and we are committed to work on it and give employment to them." He added, "After the formation of the new government, we have been discussing jobs for the last few days, and now, the Chief Minister announced the same from Gandhi Maidan on Independence Day. What would be bigger than that?" "Unemployment was the most important issue during the 2020 Assembly election and we will surely fulfill the target," he insisted.
