DAY-34, HASSI MESSAOUD, ALGERIA 02ND JULY'09 22.53 HRS

BIHAR ON THE PATH OF DEVELOPMENT

For a state where caste identities have played an overriding role in politics, development is inching its way into the political lexicon of Bihar for the first time and all the credit goes to the present Chief minister Mr. Nitish Kumar.

All the new roads, bridges and civic infrastructure he has built in the state and the development is a tangible reality in Bihar. Patna now boasts of a six-lane road (Bailey Road) and Nitish Kumar has managed to re-open several old sugar mills in Bihar, which had closed down during the tenure of Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi.

Nitish Kumar and his political ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had an edge in this election. Lalu Prasad, whose Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had the lion's share of seats in the previous Lok Sabha, had been swept off. Not only that Ram Vilas Paswan who was dictating his terms during his tenure in last Lok Sabha and during formation of Bihar government has been completely uprooted. He lost his election from Hajipur from where he once won by hundred of thousands of votes and got included his name in Guinness books of world records.

"For the first time, people are talking about development.
"Earlier, politics and elections were all about social justice and empowerment. In the early 1990s, it was Mandal; then it was the 'kamandal' (Brahmins and other upper castes represented by the BJP) and then the turmoil between Mandal and kamandal. Consequently, development took a beating, pulling the state back by at least two decades.

Nitish Kumar was making a serious effort to improve civic infrastructure, despite the odds and the political red tape. "Nitish is an honest person, but he is part of a corrupt system.

"The law and order situation is better. However, the state still needs a lot of support. Those affected by floods (of 2008) have not yet been rehabilitated”.

The three major development issues that need to be addressed are poverty, electricity and roads. "Things had deteriorated during Lalu Prasad's regime".

By creating more jobs migration from districts like Siwan and Gopalganj to Dubai, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh had to stop.

"It is a catch-22 situation. Agricultural land is shrinking and in districts like Motihari and Bettiah which still have some land left, farmers do not have the money to till it".

Muslims in the M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) vote bank of the RJD were gradually switching allegiance to Nitish Kumar.

"Lalu Prasad has not done much for Muslims. Actually, Muslims in Bihar were quite confused and were in a dilemma since Nitish Kumar is aligned with L.K. Advani," They wanted to give Nitish Kumar a chance due to his sincere effort towards development and finally Lok Sabha results showed the magnificent victory to Nitish Kumar and his development agenda.

The poll violence was to the minimal during the poll staggered to four phases. Voters broke the caste barrier. They exercised franchise to endorse the development agenda, coupled with improved law and order, rather as a pre-requisite for the fulfilment of developmental aspirations that CM Nitish Kumar, leading the Bihar NDA government, went drumming about from any pulpit, or any platform or fora available to him. NDA has bagged 32 of the 40 seats -- 80 per cent.

6 engineering colleges are going to come up in the next 4 months. NRI’s are now taking interest to invest in Bihar in Health Care sector, IT sector etc.

Separate NRI department is getting established.

Nitish Kumar is trying to get Special status for Bihar from the Central govt and for this more than Rs 14,000 crore required for different development programmes.

Wishing all the success to BIHAR.

Here is the Ex President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s Bihar Visit details~

Missile Man?s mantra for Bihar take-off

Patna: In what is being viewed as a major development, probably the first of its kind in the country, President AP J Abdul Kalam, presented | a roadmap to legislators of Bihar | for transforming the state into a' developed one in the next 10 years. ,

Giving a power-point presentation in the assembly before MLAs and MLCs while addressing a special joint session of the state legislature on Tuesday, Kalam asked them: "What will you like to be remembered for? That you have done something for development of the state, obviously"
He asked the state government to prepare a "global human resources cadre". "Prepare two million youths of the state for high value employment in IT, BPO and allied sectors before 2010," he said.

Kalam presented his roadmap? "Missions For Bihar's Prosperity" ? promising that it would increase per capita income of the state from the existing Rs 6,300 to Rs 35,000 by 2010 and Rs one lakh by 2015. "At present, the number of people below poverty line is around 42 per cent of the state's population. It will come down to zero and the literacy rate, currently at 48 per cent, rise to 100 per cent," he said laying emphasis on female literacy.

Kalam's roadmap for development of Bihar was apparently well researched as it fixed targets in the field of education, health, agriculture, infrastructure development and other areas.

It all sounded like the "10 Commandments". "Bihar will be transformed into a dream developed state," Kalam said, adding that there would be no shortage of funds for development as it would get major allotments from Bharat Nirman programme and other central schemes.

The first thrust area identified by him was agriculture and agro food processing. "Triple your food grain productivity," he said stressing that; Bihar had the potential of becoming the rice bowl of the country. He laid stress on revival the sugar industry saying north-Binar is best suited for sugarcane production and suggested creation of Sugar co-operatives, for running sugar mills on the :Maharashtra pattern. He also emphsis on dairy development , food processing and horticulture .This will lead to empowerment of 27 lakh farmers and a business of 100,000 crore," Kalam said.

Kalam said the second thrust area was education and entrepreneurship. "You have a lot to do in this field," he remarked. Kalam recalled his December 2005 visit to the state and the talk with vice-chancellors regarding delay in holding of final exams depriving students of various opportunities; "I do not know how you tolerated it for so long," he that "the VCs has promised to put exam schedules and academic sessions back on track by 2007. "Higher education should lead to employment generation in the state instead of adding to the crowd of job-seekers," the President said. "Bihar should aim for an IIT."

Kalam called for establishment of Nalanda International University with international partnership at the cost of Rs 200 crore. "The focus of the university should be world peace and prosperity ? devoid of crime, terrorism and war," he said.

The other seven key areas identified by him included health care, flood and water mission, infrastructure development, tourism, creation of exclusive economic zones and strengthening e-governance in Bihar.




1 Triple the paddy and wheat output?rice production from 5.5 million tonnes to 15 million tonnes and wheat production from 4 million tonne to 12 million tonnes ? in the next four years. This will double the earning of 25 million farmers. Create sugar cooperatives on the line of sugar cooperatives in Maharashtra which can establish 10 sugar mills in which we can utilise the 100 lakh MT of sugarcane being produced in the state. This will increase the income of 2.3 million sugarcane growers.

Increase the participation of families in Bihar State Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation ? from the existing 2,61,000 members to 7,50,000 members ? in the next three to four-years and spread the programme to all districts of the state. Produce 30 tonnes of milk powder.

Increase fruit production from existing 3 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes by 2010. Increase production of vegetables from existing 7.5 million tonnes to 20 million tonnes during: the same period.

Establish 500 processing plants in the state's 38 districts for storage, processing and food,packaging and marketing in 500 village clusters(PURA clusters; that is, Providing Urban facility in Rural Areas) in Bihar. Each will cost Rs10 crore to start with and the turn-over of the500 PURAs will be Rs 100 crore. Build up cold-storage capacity to the extent of one million tonnes of vegetables and one million tonnes of
fruits.

2 Reduce the number of school dropouts. Develop human resources with value and entrepreneurship. Reach out quality education through tele-education skills training. Ministry of human resources should consider setting up IIT. State government should set up additional technical institutes. The school and university syllabus has to be integrated with entrepreneurship courses so that pass-outs can start small enterprises.

3 Bihar shoud prepare a global cadre of skilled youths with specific knowledge and another cadre for research and leadership. Bihari youths should capture two million jobs iii the IT sector.

4 Set up a world class university in 200 acres at the cost of Rs 500 crore with the help of Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and other partnerships.

5 Introduce mobile clinics in all districts. Super speciality corporate hospitals may be set up.Insurance model for people of Bihar with government providing Rs 3 per month per citizen and the citizen confuting an equal amount. Double the health budget.

6 Recover all water bodies from encroachment .Desilt village ponds. Carry out; dredging of the rivers, create check dams so that water can be retained hi drought-prone south Bihar. Encourage fishing in the ponds. Create 5QO km- long waterways in south Bihar, connecting the South with the northern part of the- state. It will provide irrigation facility to over five million farmers and generate 1000 MWs of power.

7 Improve maintenance of National Highways to international standards. 35,500- km village roads to be made all-weather roads. Quality power with zero interruption.

8 Increase domestic tourism from existing 7 million :per year to 25 million. The number of international tourists should be increased from one lakh to one million by tapping state's religious circuits and improving infrastructure. It will create four million jobs and additional revenue of 10 million dollars per year.

9 Create 10 exclusive economic zones to set up industries such as those of leather, silk, sports, sugar, IT and special tourist products. Each region should aim a turn-over of at least Rs 5,000 crore per annum.

10 A transparent, smart e-governance with seamless access, secure and authentic flow of information crossing the inter-departmental barrier.

Source: Times of India, Mar.29, 2006.

Now to hit bed…..

Good night….. J

MANOJ KUMAR OJHA