PATNA, July 31 -- In another pre-poll sop, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday announced to enhance the incentive amount of ASHA and Mamta workers in the state. Bihar assembly elections are due in October-November this year, though the Election Commission is yet to make any formal announcement. "Since the formation of the government in November 2005, we have worked extensively to improve health services. ASHA and Mamta workers have played an important role in improving health services in rural areas. Keeping this in mind and honouring the important contribution of ASHA and Mamta workers in strengthening health services in rural areas, it has been decided to increase their honorarium. ASHA workers will now be given an incentive of Rs.3,000 instead of Rs.1,000. Also, Mamta workers will be given an incentive of Rs.600 instead of Rs.300 per delivery. This will further boost their morale and health services in rural areas will be strengthened," CM Kumar posted on X in Hindi. As per health department data, the number of Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers in Bihar is 91,094. Mamta workers are contract health workers in maternity wards of government hospitals to take care of newborns and their mothers. ASHA workers have been protesting for long for better pay, recognition, and working conditions. "This is a big gift to a group of health department workers whose number is more than 1 lakh. ASHA workers are the backbone of the health department and the CM has always worked to empower women. For the first time in 2019, it was decided to give Rs.1,000 incentive amount to ASHA workers," said health minister Mangal Pandey. Reacting to the CM's announcement, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said he had initiated the process of increasing the incentive amount for ASHA and Mamta workers during his 17-month tenure as state health minister. "This enhanced incentive amount will boost their morale and strengthen health services in rural areas," he said. Yadav, in a post on X, said, "During my 17-month tenure as health minister, I initiated the process of increasing the incentive amount for ASHA and Mamta workers, which was in its final stage, but then the CM, as usual, took the U-turn (formed government with BJP)." He also alleged, "This incompetent NDA government had been sitting on it (proposal to increase incentive) for two years. Finally, they had to bow down to our demand and increase the incentive amount for ASHA and Mamta workers". The government had not fully implemented the RJD's demand, he claimed. "Now, this government will have no choice but to accept our demand to increase the honorarium of Anganwadi workers/assistants and cooks as well. During our short 17-month tenure, we had increased the honorarium for Vikas Mitra, Shiksha Mitra/Tola Sevak, Talimi Markaz, and Panchayati Raj representatives," the RJD leader said. Nitish Kumar had on Sunday announced that the state government would soon set up a Safai Karmachari Commission to work for the welfare and uplift of sanitation workers . Earlier, in a major sop to lure voters, Kumar had announced free electricity for all consumers in the state for up to 125 units. Kumar, earlier in one of the biggest pre-election move, disbursed the first instalment of the hiked pension amount of Rs.1,100 per month to the bank accounts of 1.11 crore beneficiaries, including senior citizens, widows and people with disabilities and announced to provide jobs to 10 million youths over the next five years. He had asked the education department to count the vacant post in the government schools to conduct the Teachers' Recruitment Test 4 (TRE-4). The Bihar cabinet had made domicile mandatory for accessing 35% reservation for women in state government jobs. Previously, women from outside Bihar could also benefit from the reservation policy, which was introduced in 2016. For rural reach, Nitish has launched a series of infrastructure initiatives under the Rural Works Department (RWD), with projects totalling Rs.21,406.36 crore aimed at transforming rural connectivity across Bihar. More importantly, honorarium of all employees associated with Jeevika has been doubled; 4 lakh women employees of Bihar government will get housing facility near their office, the government will give Rs.2 lakh each to 94 lakh poor families and the monthly allowance of representatives of three-tier Panchayati Raj system has been increased by 1.5 times....