Nitish aims for smart villages to stop people from migrating

The Bihar chief minister said in the remaining four years of its term, his government aimed at creating smart villages through implementation of seven resolves

Wondering how could a city be made ‘smart’ with a “meager” sum of Rs 500 crore, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday said his government had launched programmes to create ‘smart villages’ so that people do not need to move to cities.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar visits a government school during his Nischaya Yatra in Madhepura on Friday. (PTI file photo)

“I do not know how a city could be made smart at a meager sum of Rs 500 crore over a period of five years. Anyway, this is a Central government scheme,” he said at a meeting here in the fourth phase of his ‘Nishchay yatra’.

He said in the remaining four years of its term, his government aimed at creating smart villages through implementation of seven resolves which had programmes for providing free electricity connections, toilets, drinking water and sewage connections to each area.

“When all villages of Bihar become smart, who would feel like moving to cities for better civic amenities?” the chief minister asked.

As part of the ‘Nishchay yatra’ launched on November 9, Kumar is crisscrossing the state to take feedback on prohibition and also preparation for implementation of ‘seven resolves.’

On the eve of Bihar polls, Kumar had announced his ‘seven resolves’. The same was adopted by the grand secular alliance government as policy of governance for the next five years.

Accompanied by ministerial colleagues Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Chandrasekhar and state police chief PK Thakur, Kumar highlighted the measures his government has initiated with special focus on youth and women.

Kumar exhorted women to keep a close vigil on people engaged in liquor trade.