Grand Alliance vows jobs to youths, end farm laws in Bihar if voted to power

Patna: The RJD-led Grand Alliance (GA) on Saturday released its joint manifesto for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, promising to offer jobs to 10 lakh youngsters and repealing the new farm laws recently enacted by the central government if they are voted to power.
Releasing the manifesto titled “Badlav Ka Sankalp” (commitment to change) in the presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and other Mahagathbandhan laders, Tejashwi Yadav said their government, if elected, would first approve the process for appointments on about 10 lakh jobs in the government.
“Contractual teachers would be entitled for same pay for same work, for which they have been agitating for long,” said Yadav, who is the opposition chief ministerial candidate.
Assuring the people that the coalition will stand by its commitments, Yadav said that they were not leaders who conveniently forget their promises and that the state has still not been accorded a special status — a demand echoed for years by political parties in Bihar.
“(Donald) Trump will not come to accord special status to Bihar, which was once promised by the Prime Minister,” said Yadav, in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modis ties with the US President.
Kumar has raised the issue of granting special status to the land-locked Bihar several times, both during the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-helmed NDA- which could bring investment into the state by providing concessions in taxes to prospective industries.
Surjewala said that the first assembly sitting of the GA government would see annulment of the three controversial farm acts that, he alleged, defeat the objectives of green revolution in the state.
Nitish Kumar government was the first in the country to do away with the APMC (Agriculture Produce Market Committee) Act in 2006.
“If we form the government, under the leadership of Tejashwi Yadav, we will pass a Bill in the first Vidhan Sabha session to scrap the three anti-farm laws.
“Can PM Modi and Nitish tell us that if all mandis are destroyed then how will the farmers get MSP,” Surjewala asked.
The centre last month enacted three farm reforms to liberalise agricultural markets and end local monopolies of regulated markets known as agricultural produce marketing committees. (PTI)