Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday announced 20 lakh employment opportunities, including 10 lakh government jobs in the state, NDTV reported.
“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 want to take the figure to 20 lakhs,” he said.
Kumar made the announcement during his Independence Day address at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan.
The announcement came two days after his deputy, Tejashwi Yadav, had said that Bihar would soon become the state to provide the most number of government jobs in the country. He had previously promised to provide 10 lakh government jobs to the citizens of Bihar.
On Monday, Yadav described the announcement by the chief minister as historic.
“Many thanks to respected Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the historic announcement of arranging 10 lakh jobs and other 10 lakh jobs in Bihar according to the expectations and dreams of the unemployed and youth from Gandhi Maidan,” Yadav wrote in a tweet. “You and I will take Bihar on the path of development and progress. It’s an oath!”
The Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) severed ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party and joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led Grand Alliance of seven parties on August 9.
Kumar took oath as chief minister of the new government on August 10, and Yadav was sworn in as his deputy.
‘No communal tensions since 2006’
In his speech on Monday, Kumar claimed that there has been no communal tensions in the state since 2006.
“Police action in such matters have been very quick,” he said, according to The Indian Express. “As a result, cases of communal tension have only gone down over the years”.
Kumar also defended his decision to ban liquor in the state and said that he tried to follow the principles of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Hindustan Times reported.
Quoting Gandhi, Kumar said: “Liquor not only robs men of their money but of their reason”.
The sale and consumption of alcohol has been banned in Bihar since April 2016.
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