Chief minister Nitish Kumar inaugurates the e-finance inclusion scheme in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Aug. 26: Riding high on his development plank, chief minister Nitish Kumar today said development would be the main agenda in the upcoming Assembly election.

The chief minister said he was ready to face the election and was just waiting for the announcement of the poll schedule. “Development would be the primary agenda in the coming Assembly polls. I have been successful ultimately because it (development) has become the talking point across the state and those who used to say that development does not have any impact on politics have been actually left speechless,” Nitish Kumar said during the launch of E-Shakti project here.

Putting the debate at rest on whose money the development was taking place in Bihar, Kumar said “The main thing is that the state (Bihar) is developing and it the people’s money. It does not matter whose money is this, whether it is the Centre’s or the state’s. The money belongs neither to the Centre nor to the the state…we (those who are at the helm of affairs) are working as the trustees,” Kumar said.

Making it categorically clear to the striking employees who want to arm-twist the government on the eve of the Assembly election, he said the state government would not heed their unnecessary demands because the government has completed its work in the past 57 months and was not scared of examination time.

“We are ready for elections and the poll schedule should be announced at the earliest,” a confident Nitish said. The state was reeling under the effect of a double blow of situation and scanty rainfall. The rainfall would not help anyway as whatever loss was to happen it has already occurred. The kharif crop was damaged badly due to inadequate rainfall that would beneficial to Rabi crop and certainly not Kharif crops, the chief minister said.

While dedicating the E-Shakti project from his office at 4, Deshratna Marg, the chief minister said that the introduction of the biometric smart card would not only bring transparency but also wipe out the corruption involved in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Under the E-Shakti project, the payment would be made to the worker directly through an electronic system. The worker’s attendance, the hours he/she has worked, his registration and everything else would be done through the hand-held machine by the officer at the site.

At the end of the day, the worker would receive his payment in cash.

The Central Bank of India has opened no-frills accounts for the workers having biometric smart cards and the wages they earn would be credited to their accounts directly. The E-Shakti project, which has been launched in Patna district as a pilot project scheme, would cover 2.5 crore people under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the whole of state.

About 20 lakh people in the rural areas of Muzaffarpur, Vaishali and Nalanda have been registered under the scheme apart from 13.46 lakh people in rural areas of Patna. Even 3.5 lakh such smart cards have already been distributed in Patna.

Praising the scheme, the chief minister said the introduction of this scheme would enable workers to receive their wages instantly instead of the previous system when they had to wait one or two weeks to get their payment.