In what may be considered as a welcome gesture, Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government on Tuesday announced that it has approved the proposal for providing free coronavirus vaccine to all the people of the state.
It is one of the key election promises made by the rulling Janata Dal United (JDU) and its ally BJP. The decision was taken at the first meeting of the cabinet since the allocation of ministries last month.
A proposal for generating 20 lakh private and government jobs has also been cleared by the cabinet. However it has not clarified as to how the promised jobs will be created.
Additonally, several proposals in regards to women empowerment has also been cleared which includes a fixed grant of Rs 50,000 to unmarried graduate women and Rs 25,000 for those who have only completed school. A scheme will be launched under which women will be given interest-free loans up to Rs 5 lakh to become entrepreneurs.
'Saat Nischay Part-2', the second part of the government's seven resolves, has also been approved by the cabinet for implementation.
Meanwhile, the opposition had slammed the BJP for announcing free-vaccine for only the poll-bound state.
"What about non-BJP ruled states? Indians who didn't vote BJP will not get free Covid vaccine?" – Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had questioned.
Earlier this month, the centre said there may not be a need to vaccinate the country's entire population.
"I just want to make this clear that the government has never spoken about vaccinating the entire country. It's important that we discuss such scientific issues based on factual information only and then analyse it", said health secretary Rajesh Bhushan as reported by news agency PTI.
Congress in response said that the remark was a "U-turn" as PM Modi himself had promised vaccine to one and all.
