“Bihar has become model for government jobs”: Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav

New Delhi [India], August 24 : Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said that his state has become a model for government jobs as no state has announced vacancies like the Nitish Kumar government.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, Bihar Deputy CM, while talking about job opportunities in the state, said that his government will give 10 lakh government jobs in the coming time during this tenure.
“In 2020, our main agenda was unemployment and we said that 10 lakh people will get government jobs. We have been announcing vacancies since our government was formed. We have announced around 5 lakh government jobs in the state. Earlier, 70,000 policemen joined the force. Recently, 1,75,000 jobs were announced for teachers,” he said.
Yadav further said that the state government is also planning to announce policies for public health that would create around 1.4 to 1.5 lakh jobs in the sector.
“After a few days, we are going to bring public health ... policy, after which around 1.4 to 1.5 lakh jobs in health sector would be announced... Bihar has become a model for government jobs. PM started distributing appointment letters after us. The good thing is that the agenda we came up with, is being discussed today. We will give 10 lakh government jobs in the coming time during this tenure... No state has announced jobs in such huge numbers,” he added.
However, speaking about the caste-based census, Yadav said that the caste census is the union government's right as per the constitution.
"We struggled from the road to assembly for this. When I was the opposition leader, we gave a proposal in the Vidhan Sabha that he (Nitish Kumar) should keep people of all parties together and speak to the PM about it. We became more concerned when the central government neglected the question regarding the caste census and we met the prime minister. PM did nothing. After that, we asked a question in the parliament again, and it was discarded... We don't want a caste census, it is a caste-based survey. The caste census is the union government's right as per the constitution...,” Bihar Deputy CM said.
He further said that the government will also conduct an economic survey to know the population under poverty.
“This will give us the numbers, and we will get scientific data. And we will also do an economic survey. Because what we believe is that people are poor in every section. We will come up with schemes after we know where the poverty is and benefit them. How can we decide whom to get a reservation if we don't know the economic conditions,” he added.
The decision of a caste census was taken by the Bihar cabinet on June 2 last year, months after the Centre ruled out such an exercise in the Census.
The survey was slated to cover an estimated population of 12.70 crores in an estimated 2.58 crore households in 38 districts, which have 534 blocks and 261 urban local bodies and was to be completed by May 31, 2023, but the Patna High Court put a stay on the Nitish Kumar government's decision to conduct the survey based on castes.