Maha BJP manifesto repetition of old promises, says Cong's Deb

The All India Congress Committee women's wing president Sushmita Deb called the BJP manifesto released on Tuesday for the Maharashtra Assembly polls as a repetition of old promises.

Creation of one crore jobs in the next five years, providing houses for all by 2022 and ushering in USD 1 trillion economy are the key promises made in the ruling BJP's "sankalp patra".

"It is a classic case of repetition of old promises. The reason is simple. Promises of 2014 remain unfulfilled. This explains why after five years, BJP-Shiv Sena government has no concrete achievement to showcase," she said at a press conference here.

Deb said agriculture sector had worsened, unemployment had risen sharply, crimes against women had seen a severe spike and promise of clean drinking water remain unfulfilled.

While the BJP-Sena government promised double-digit growth in agriculture, the actual rate was a meagre 0.4 per cent, which had led to eight farmers committing suicide every day, she claimed.

"The BJP's manifesto promises one crore jobs over the next five years. This is yet another jumla given sharp rise in unemployment which has tripled under this government. In fact every third young person in urban areas is today jobless," Deb said.

She said 2000 factories had shut down and Maharashtra was no longer the preferred destination and lagged behind Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand in ease of doing of business.

Crime against women were rising sharply, including a 300 per cent increase in cases of abduction besides 11 rapes registered every day, Deb stated, adding that the Devendra Fadnavis government had not used a single rupee from the Nirbhaya Fund.

The manifesto had nothing to show for the education sector, which explains why Maharashtra slipped three notches to 6th rank in the NITI Aayog's School Education Quality Index, Deb said.

She questioned the BJP's promise to make Maharashtra tanker-free and provide clean drinking water to all by 2022, asking why it had failed to do so by 2019 despite promising it earlier.