Congress cites Centre’ report to question Nitish Kumar’s development record
Congress party also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over BJP’s manifesto promise to create jobs for 19 lakh people.
Congress has accused the Nitish Kumar-led dispensation of touching the bottom of all developmental indices and said it was unfortunate that Bihar’s 33.74% people were still living in a state of poverty.
Quoting a Niti Aayog report, Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said Bihar had been rated at the bottom of development on all major yardsticks under the sustainable development goal report on 60 indicators. The Niti Aayog has recently released the report.
As per the report, more than 4.21 crore people in Bihar are still below the poverty line. “Bihar has the highest rate of dropouts in class 12 in the country. Nearly 39.73% students did not finish higher secondary school to go for higher studies,” said the Congress leader.
“One can imagine the quality of education in schools, which have to make do with about 75% of untrained teachers. Gross enrolment ratio in higher education in the state is the lowest in the country,” said the AICC general secretary.
Citing the report, Surjewala said about 42% of children suffer from malnutrition in Bihar, which is the highest among major states in the country. “More than 43% of children aged below 5 years are anaemic. Similarly, 58% of girls and women aged between 15-49 years have been found anaemic, which is highest in the country,” he added.
Quoting a recent report of the Union ministry of rural development, Surjewala said more than 52% people, registered under MGNREGS in Bihar, could not get work despite the demand during the pandemic period—April to October.
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“Bihar has the lowest reach of banks as compared to other states. Participation of women labour forces is also the lowest. Only 2.8% of women are engaged in work, while labour participation of people aged between 16-64 years is 38%, which is the lowest in the country,” said the Congress leader.
The Congress leader claimed that the much-trumpeted LPG scheme did not work well in the state as about 51% of households do not use LPG for cooking.
“About 79% of applicants could not get a house under the PM Awas Yojna in Bihar,” said Surjewala.
The Congress leader also dismissed the BJP’s manifesto, which promises jobs to 19 lakh people and said that the BJP leaders must say what happened to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assurance for jobs to about 2 crore people each year.