JP Nadda releases BJP's Assam manifesto

Guwahati: Four days ahead of the Assam Assembly elections, BJP President J.P. Nadda on Tuesday released the party's manifesto focusing chronic flood management, protection and development of the Assamese culture, empowerment of youths and women, correction of the NRC and check infiltrations.

Announcing the ruling the BJP's "Sankalp Patra", Nadda said that there are 10 main focal issues in the manifesto to be implemented with letter and spirit after the party coming to power for the second time in Assam.

Accompanied by other central and state leaders including Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Nadda lauding the efforts of NDA government, said that the party has been working tirelessly for the past five years for the inclusive development of Assam under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, supported by Home Minister Amit Shah and the vision implemented at the grassroots level by Chief Minister, other ministers and leaders.

Explaining the 10 commitments in the manifesto, the BJP President said that under the "Mission Brahmaputra", new scientific approaches would be undertaken to stop floods in Assam and save the livelihood of people.

"Dredging would be done from Dhubri to Sadiya and build reservoirs to store excess water from Brahmaputra and its tributaries."

He said that to empower the women under the state's biggest flagship scheme "Orunodoi", the monthly payments of Rs 830 would be increased to Rs 3,000 covering 30 lakh deserving families.

The BJP also promised to strengthen and protect 'Namghars' and 'Satras' (traditional Vaishnavite monasteries of Assam) and grants upto Rs 2.5 lakh to be provided to these traditional institutes.

"Namghars", literally meaning prayer house, introduced by Srimanta Sankardeva, are places for congregational worship associated with the entire Assamese community and the Ekasarana sect of Hinduism, in particular, which is native to Assam.

While addressing the media, the BJP President said that to boost the future of Assam's Children, free and quality education with trained teachers eould be provided every child under the 'Mission Bala Unnayan' in state government-run institutions.

Free bicycles would be given to all school students from Class VIII standard onwards.

Nadda said that under the 10 main commitments of the BJP, a process of correction and reconciliation of entries into the National Register of Citizens (NRC) under the Supreme Court mandate, would be initiated in a structured manner to protect genuine Indian citizens and exclude all illegal immigrants.

The apex court monitored the NRC published lists on August 31, 2019, excluding the 19.06 lakh people.

A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included in the NRC lists out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.

A majority of those left out from the list are believed to be Bengali Muslims and Hindus besides Gorkhas.

He announced that to safeguard Assam's political rights, delimitation exercises would be undertaken to protect the political rights of the people.

The manifesto also promised to make Assam self sufficient in production of essential produce, "Assam Aahar Atmanirbharta Yojana" would be launched which would drive the state towards self sufficiency in essential food items within the next five years.

"To make Assam ;India's Fastest Job Creator', two lakh government jobs would be provided to the youth of Assam every year and would also facilitate and enable the provision of eight lakh livelihoods in the private sector," Nadda said.

He said that to promote the entrepreneurship, the BJP has promised to enable youths to shine and now the new pledge is to further empower them to dream big, scale newer heights and give them the push to become stakeholders in building an "Aatmanirbhar Bharat".

"To empower Assam's citizens with land rights, 'Pattas' would be given to all landless Indian citizens of the state in a phased manner," he added.

In the last five years, the BJP government has claimed that it has given 'Pattas' to more than three lakh people.

Union Agriculture and Food Processing Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who is the BJP's Assam central observer, state BJP President Ranjeet Kumar Dass, Finance and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma among other leaders were present in the manifesto release ceremony held at a hotel in Guwahati.

Elections for the 126-seat Assam Assembly would take place in three phases -- March 27, April 1 and April 6.

The results will be announced on May 2.