Nitish launches new scheme to woo women ahead of polls

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday launched the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana, a plan that seeks to help ‘one woman from each family to start business with financial assistance from the state government.

- Arun Kumar

As per the module of the scheme, the woman would be provided an initial corpus to launch an enterprise and after assessment of her business model, she would be given 22 lakh to expand it.

The scheme, according to officials, will begin this month itself. The state cabinet had already approved the plan.

Janata Dal (United) leaders termed the scheme as an extension of programmes for women’s empowerment by making them financially independent through entrepreneurship.

The CM, flanked by both deputy CMs Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha and state’s parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, launched the portal for filing application online and flagged off 250 publicity vehicles to spread the message across the state so that all eligible women could avail the benefits.