Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday announced that the government would help generate 10 lakh jobs in the state under various arrangements in a bid to control employment in the state.
Addressing a large crowd at Patna's Gandhi Maidan to mark the 75th Independence Day, Kumar said that the new JD(U) and RJD alliance will soon work out a plan to create 10 lakh new jobs in the government sector. Another 10 lakh employment opportunities will be created in additional sectors.
Kumar said: “We will do so much to create jobs and employment opportunities for the children of the state -- in both government and outside -- that if we succeed, we would take the figure to 20 lakhs.”
This is to be noted here during the 2020 state assembly campaign, Tejashwi Yadav, son of Lalu Yadav and now Deputy CM, had kicked off a controversy around creating jobs in the state.
Yadav had got into a tiff with the state BJP after an old video surfaced where Yadav was seen promising supporters 10 lakh jobs in the state if he is elected to power. Yadav was criticized by the BJP for his claims in reply to which he had taken potshots at the saffron party on communal issues.
Earlier this month, Kumar broke from the National Democratic Alliance and joined hands with his former ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to form a fresh front. He took oath as the chief minister last Wednesday. This time around the Grand Alliance has seven parties — JD(U), RJD, Congress, CPIML(L), CPI, CPI(M), and HAM. The new front has 160 MLAs of a total of 243 members in the assembly.
In 2015, Kumar tied up with RJD and won the state assembly polls. But in 2017, Kumar snapped his ties with Yadav over corruption charges and joined NDA. In 2020, JD(U) and BJP together won the state elections and became the CM for the sixth time.