Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has announced a slew of sops, including free coronavirus vaccine and 20 lakh jobs for the people, in what is being seen as an effort to counter the disquiet and opposition against him. The sops also have a distinct influence of Janata Dal United ally BJP.

A cow species development institute would be also established in the state to conserve the indigenous cow species, a database of migrant workers would be prepared at the panchayat level, and efforts would be made in cooperation with the central government to set a “minimum support price (MSP)” for pulses.

The decisions were taken at the first cabinet meeting of the new National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the state chaired by Nitish on Tuesday evening after the allocation of departments to the ministers last month.

“Free vaccination will be carried out in the entire state to protect the people from corona after its vaccine becomes available,” said Sanjay Kumar, principal secretary, cabinet secretariat department.

Free coronavirus vaccine was the poll promise of the BJP and was one of the main points in its manifesto for the Assembly elections held in October–November.

However, the promise had run into rough weather when sources said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a meeting on the Covid-19 situation in the country, circumvented a question by Nitish on who would bear the cost of the vaccine. Modi is said to have asked to let the vaccine come first.

The cost of providing free Covid-19 vaccine in Bihar, which has a population of around 11 crore, will run into thousands of crores of rupees. There is still not a word about who would bear the expenditure, though the decision has been bracketed under the state health department.

“Now that free vaccine is a cabinet decision, it indicates that the state government will bear its cost. Financially, it is going to be an unnerving situation because Bihar is a low revenue state dependent mostly on the taxes shared by the Centre. The state coffers are virtually empty since the pandemic unfolded,” a senior state government official told The Telegraph.

It is also unclear whether the entire population of Bihar would be vaccinated or some targeted sections would be given the vaccine doses. Central government officials have already made it clear that it has never said about vaccinating the entire population of the country and the decision would be taken on the basis of scientific analysis.

The cabinet decision to create “more than 20 lakh employment opportunities in government and non-government sectors” is again a step towards the fulfilment of the NDA poll promise made to counter leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav’s promise of 10 lakh government jobs in the first cabinet meeting if he came to power.

However, the state government has not set any deadline for the jobs or the manner they would be created. They form a part of Nitish’s “seven resolves for a developed Bihar — 2” that would be completed by the next Assembly elections in 2025. The first part of the “seven resolves” had the timeframe of 2015 to 2020.

The fresh set of seven resolves include empowerment of the youth, women empowerment, irrigation for every farm, clean and developed villages, clean and developed cities, easy connectivity, and additional health facilities for all, including animal health.

Meanwhile, the RJD said the state government’s decision to provide 20 lakh jobs was just a “jumla” (rhetoric) in the light of Tejashwi’s promise. It also alleged that the decision would end up like the earlier employment schemes brought by the state government.

Tejashwi attacked the Nitish-led government on the completion of its first month without any concrete achievement. He gave the government a month’s time to take effective steps.

“We are giving a month to this new government, which has come to power through hustle, to fulfil the demands of crores of unemployed, students and farmers; control the corruption spread in every nook and corner of the state and take solid steps to curb crime,” Tejashwi tweeted on Wednesday.

RJD sources said that the party is considering launching a statewide agitation to press the government to implement its election promises.