The Naveen Patnaik government, which is battling anti-incumbency and has come under attack from the Opposition on the issue of its failure to preserve “Odia pride”, has announced “free power” for people, ₹ 25,000 assistance to farmers for their daughters’ marriage and 2 lakh government jobs for youths in the next five years.

While giving focus on the development of youth and women, it has also promised ₹1,000 crore heritage development fund to preserve places of worship, heritage sites and places associated with important personalities.

Steps will be taken up for preservation of all Jagannath temples, all other major temples. Places of faith of the tribal population will be preserved and the faith of other communities will be respected.

These are part of the promises the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has made in its manifesto. The manifesto was released with a tag-line — “We delivered more than we promised” on Thursday just one day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state. The Prime Minister is scheduledto arrive here on a two-day visit to the state. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik released the manifesto in the presence of his close associate V.K.
Pandian.

Naveen tried to send a message that his government is working for the promotion of the Odia language and promised to earmark ₹100 crore for the development and promotion of Odia as a classical language. BJP leaders continued to maintain that the language is in danger and an attempt is being made to pass the reins of the government to an outsider.

The BJD also announced to institute “Kalinga Shree” and “Kalinga Bhushan” awards on the line of Padma awards and award eminent people of Odisha every year. The party also pledged to set up a Centre of Excellence at Sambalpur University with a corpus fund of ₹25 crore for research in languages of the region.

On freebies, the BJD promised free power to consumers using up to 100 units of electricity and a 50 per cent subsidy for those consuming between 100 and 150 units. “We will provide Free electricity to all the domestic households consuming less than 100 units per month.

For households consuming between 100 and 150 units, 50 units will be free. This scheme will cover 85-90% of the households in Odisha. Free electricity will be provided for the farmers,” the manifesto said.

Aware that unemployment is a big issue, the BJD announced that the next ten years will be the “Decade of the Youth” towards the creation of Nabin Odisha. “We will be the first state to have a dedicated youth budget — Nabin Odisha Youth Budget with ₹1lakh crores for next 10 years,” the manifesto said.

It promised loans for self-employment to be increased to ₹2 lakh and scholarships for students. Besides, ₹1,000 crore of the Nabin Odisha Youth Budget will be set aside every year to be implemented based on suggestions taken from the youth of the state.

It has promised pension for the Mission Shakti members both rural and urban. The Gender Budget will be more than ₹2 lakh crores by 2036. “We will set up a ₹100 crore corpus fund to provide soft loans up to ₹10 lakh for individual women entrepreneurs,” the manifesto said.