PATNA, Dec. 6 -- Rural development department (RDD) minister Shravan Kumar on Friday said the state government had taken several initiatives for women empowerment including the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana and assured that the state government would fulfil its promise of giving Rs.2 lakh as further assistance to eligible beneficiaries under the new scheme after having already given Rs.10,000 to 15.6 million women to open their own enterprise in last few months. The RDD minister , while seeking approval for the supplementary demand of Rs.24,050 crore of the department after a debate on the cut motion brought by the opposition to the supplementary demand in assembly, said the state government under CM Nitish Kumar had previously given a boost to self help groups (SHGs) under the Jeevika programme which had generated huge employment for women and also made them economically self independent. As per the RDD's supplementary demand, Rs.21,000 crore had been sought for schemes of women empowerment (including Mahila Rojgar Yojana), PMAY-G (Rs.989 crore), MGNREGA (Rs.655 crore), NRLM (Rs.605 crore) and other schemes. " We have already given Rs.10,000 to 15.6 million women covered under Mukhymantri Rojgar Yojana so far and we will also given further assistance of Rs.2 lakh to all eligible beneficiaries for running their enterprises in coming days. The government will fulfill all its promises," the RDD minister said. He also highlighted that 6 lakh women farmers had been covered under various schemes in 2025-26 whereas around 3.1 million Jeevika didis had been declared as 'lakhpati didis' by giving them sustainable earning avenues. The minister also took a dig at the opposition RJD for casting doubts about the implementation of the Mahila Rojgar Yojana and allegedly spreading rumours that the Rs.10,000 monetary assistance given to women beneficiaries would have to be returned with interest. "Whenever there has been a narrative set to finish CM Kumar, our leader has bounced back by emerging stronger. People of Bihar have accepted the Nitish model of development," the minister said, evoking strong reaction from the opposition benches. Earlier , the opposition RJD moved a cut motion to the supplementary demand of the RDD with party's senior MLA Alok Mehta favouring the cut motion on the plea that the state government's budget making process was faulty and supplementary demands only reflected how there was mismatch between the budget estimates and real expenditure by departments. "We ask from where would the money come for the supplementary demand. Besides, how will the government give Rs.2 lakh to eligible beneficiaries under the Mahila Rojgar Yojana?," Mehta asked. He also asked why the new scheme had covered only 13.6 million women when the actual number of women in the state was around 60 million. Other opposition MLAs too supported the motion saying that the government's supplementary demand was reflecting its poor fiscal management. Incidentally, leader of the opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav was not present in the house on Friday. He had skipped the house on Thursday too. Intervening in the debate, finance minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said the supplementary budget was always brought to cover expenses which came up later in the year as per needs by various departments. Yadav also flayed the opposition for raising questions about fiscal capability of the government by highlighting how the previous RJD government had left the state in poor fiscal health and the situation was salvaged after the NDA came to power. Later, the supplementary demands of other departments were approved through guillotine paving the way for the approval of the second supplementary budget of Rs.91,717 crore. Assembly also passed the Appropriation Bill through voice vote. The five-day session of Bihar's 18th Legislative Assembly was adjourned sine die on Friday. The session, which began with the oath-taking of newly elected MLAs, also saw the unanimous selection of veteran BJP leader Prem Kumar as Speaker and JD(U) leader Narendra Narayan Yadav as dy Speaker. The session also saw CM Nitish Kumar being elected as Leader of the House and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as Leader of the Opposition. In his concluding speech, Speaker Prem Kumar talked of the various bills and legislative business conducted during the session and also thanked the CM, deputy CMs Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, LoP Tejashwi Yadav and other members for extending their support....