With just a few days left for the West Bengal elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the 21st of March, released the manifesto for the Assembly elections.
The manifesto of the BJP came two days after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) released its manifesto. In the BJP manifesto, the Party focused on growth of the State, employment, women empowerment and other developments for the citizens of West Bengal.
Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, released the manifesto named ‘Sankalp Patra.’ He said, the manifesto identifies political agendas of the Party lengths and reflects confidence that a regime change in Kolkata is imminent.
Some of the promises made in the BJP manifesto:
The manifesto promises to regularise the citizenship of refugees immediately after being in power. Mr. Shah said, “Refugees have been living here since the 1970s, and are pained at not having citizenship. We will implement (the) CAA in the first cabinet meeting and provide citizenship to them.”
Mr. Shah said, a special fund would be created for refugees. The fund would help families with necessary items. Each family would be provided Rs. 10,000 per year after they receive citizenship. A corpus of Rs. 100 crore was announced for that.
Schemes for women and girls like a free education scheme, named “from KG to PG.” Implementation of special bonds to the Scheduled Castes (SCs,) the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and the Other Backward Classes (OBCs,) families for girls’ welfare. Regarding the “KG to PG” scheme, he said there will be a corpus of Rs. 500 crore to provide financial assistance to meritorious girls. Apart from a special Rs. 50,000 bond for families with a girl child, the manifesto also announced Rs. 1 lakh to women from the SC, ST, OBC and economically weaker sections at the time of their wedding. In addition, there would be a “free public transport” to women and girls.
The manifesto also promises to bring Mahishya, Teli and other Hindu OBCs under the ambit of OBC reservation.
In the health sector, the BJP promises three new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in north Bengal, Jangalmahal and the Sunderbans. In addition, the Party would give a Rs.10,000 crore healthcare infrastructure fund for West Bengal.
Emphasising one of the strongest areas of West Bengal, the art and culture, the BJP promised a Tagore Prize “on the lines of the Nobel Prize”, and a Satyajit Ray Award, “on the lines of Oscar”.
If voted to office, the party also promised to keep aside an amount of Rs. 500 crore for Kolkata to get Unesco Heritage City tag.
Apart from establishing specific development boards for the nine Scheduled Tribe communities like Santhals, Oraons, Mundas and Bhumika, the manifesto also included increased funding to Matua, Rajbangshi, Bauri and the Bagdi development boards.
Amit Shah also announced an amount of Rs. 1,000 crore fund to incentivise weavers, carpenters and tanners. For the ST-dominated blocks, Mr. Shah announced 200 days’ work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Re MGNREGA scheme. In addition, wages for tea garden workers would be increased from Rs.176 to Rs. 350 per day.
Moving ahead with the promises made in the manifesto, Mr. Amit Shah said, “We will constitute a Sonar Bangla economic revival task force that will formulate new industrial policy to promote Bengal as an investment destination and revive sick industrial units.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party assured to bring West Bengal among the top three states in terms of ease of doing business.
Other promises made in the BJP manifesto:
- The MSME units will be cleared.
- Electricity would be provided at Rs. 2 per unit for these units.
- A special corpus of Rs. 500 crore was also proposed for collateral-free loans to the units.
- Free electricity up to 200 units for domestic consumption.
- Rs. 30,000 crore fund to be spent over five years to develop infrastructure in 10 cities.
- Rs 22,000 crore has been earmarked for transforming Kolkata into “a city of future”. Amit Shah said, “The figure might sound odd to you, but we have made a detailed estimate for that.”
- Rs. 1 lakh crore to be spent over five years for development of roads jointly with the centrally sponsored schemes.
- The BJP also proposed Bengali and local languages as mandatory from Classes 1 to 10 in schools, irrespective of their instruction medium
- It also proposed to make Bengali one of the official languages at the United Nations.
- Amit Shah also proposed Annapurna canteens, where meals would be provided at Rs. 5 to all.
- The BJP also announced schemes to attract farmers. Rs 4,000 per year promised to landless farmers along with arrears, towards the centrally sponsored PM Kisan scheme. A Rs. 20,000 crores corpus was proposed for agriculture infrastructure development and an amount of Rs. 5,000 crore corpus for the right price to farmers.
- The manifesto also proposed Rs. 2,000 crores for infrastructure for fishermen and Rs. 1,000 crores for development of dairy infrastructure.
The West Bengal Assembly elections for 294 seats are scheduled to be held in 8 phases. The elections would begin from the 27th of March and would continue till the 29th of April. The results of the elections would be announced on the 2nd of May.
