BJP's 'youth manifesto' promises smart phones, laptops in MP

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s unit in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday announced a slew of measures for the poor and the youth as it unveiled its manifesto for the November 25 assembly elections.

These measures include giving smart phone to students, laptops for meritorious ones, besides benefits to five lakh youngsters under self-employment schemes.

Manifesto Committee Chairman Vikram Verma released the party's vision document in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, state BJP President Narendra Singh Tomar and other senior party leaders.

"There are a large number of youths in the state. To ensure their welfare, the BJP has announced a number of measures for them, especially smart phones for all government college students, providing benefits of self-employment schemes to five lakh youths and laptop for meritorious students," Chouhan said.

Targeting the poor, the BJP has announced a provision of rice at Rs one per kg under its food security programme.

It also promised to construct 15 lakh houses for the landless in the state. For agriculture labourers, the party announced a novel provident fund scheme, a new crop insurance policy, Mukhyamantri Khet Sadak Yojna, besides providing land lease to slum dwellers among others.

For turning agriculture into a profitable venture, the party has promised to increase the agriculture potential of the state to 40 lakh hectare from the current 25 lakh hectare.

It also announced its plans of setting up ten agriculture polytechnic colleges in the state.

The chief minister said that popular schemes like Ladli Laxmi Yojna, Mukhyamantri Kanyadan yojna and Mukhyamantri Teerth Darshan yojna among others will continue as before.

The BJP also announced its plans to connect all villages in the state with an all-weather road in the next five years as proper connectivity is a major issue in rural areas.

Referring to power, a major issue in the state, the BJP promised to generate 20,000 MW till 2020.

For enhancing health and medical facilities in the state, the party announced the setting up of five new medical and 15 nursing colleges and taking the number of MBBS seats from 1620 to 5000 by 2018.

The BJP has also announced that it will provide laptops to all the accredited journalists in the state and facilitate construction of a house at concessional rates.

The party has also promised to establish a network of small and micro industries in the state and the creation of Bhopal-Indore, Bhopal-Bina, Jabalpur-Singrauli and Mores Investment Corridor to give boost to industrialisation in the state.