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I
was in Bihar for almost five days. We entered
Bihar on April 20 and left on April 24, 2007.
The reports in local newspapers were full with
news and happenings that confirms the arrival of
a resurging Bihar. I could feel the change.
On April 20, the newspapers carried the news of
the government embarking on a mammoth project to
interlink the major rivers within Bihar to
address the dual problems of flood and draught.
If executed, the project will increase Bihar’s
assured irrigation coverage potential by over 2
million hectares, an increase of huge 80%. The
projects are already identified. Consulting
firms are short-listed. Ganga water will get
transferred to South Bihar; Kosi water to
Mahananda basin; Burhi Gandak, Baya and Gandak
waters to the existing Gandak Canal System; and
Sone basin water to Punpun-Harobar-Kiul basin
through barrages, pumps, and canals.
I couldn’t understand if this river interlinking
project will get the financial support from the
center or it is only the state initiated one.
The UPA government has not shown any enthusiasm
in river interlinking projects just because it
was initiated by the former NDA government, even
though the judiciary asked for a timeframe. Only
President Kalam have been talking about it
regularly. Bihar government must also go in big
way in renovation of existing ones and
construction of water bodies in thousands in
north Bihar to store flood water using NREG
programme. Finance Minister Chidambaram has been
talking about water bodies since UPA’s first
budget.
News from many fronts are equally exciting.
Patna- Gaya railway track is getting doubled,
and Patna-Gaya section of NH-83 is getting six-laned
under NHDP-III. While Gaya airport is getting
upgraded, a Buddha Memorial Park is going to
come up on 26 acres of old jail campus close to
Patna Junction.
More than 2000 villages in 7 districts of Bihar
have achieved universal enrolment of children
with appointment of over 1,20,000 teachers,
construction of about 1,00,000 new class rooms,
and opening of 15,000 new schools. Projects such
as Sankalp supported by UNICEF and Pratham are
making thee focused education happen. Through
extensive community mobilization,3,70,000
children out of 5,50,000 identified ones were
enrolled.
I wish Bihar abolishes Bihar boards for
secondary, higher secondary, and technical
education and switch over to CBSE and hands over
inspection to NGOs such as Pratham and Premji
Foundation.
The Religious Trust Board under the leadership
of Acharya Kishore Kunal are going to construct
five major hospitals and one medical college in
Bihar. With an innovative funding, the 80-crore
medical college cum hospital will come up at
Begusarai. The project additionally includes a
terminal care center in Hajipur, a Vatsalya
(child and maternity) hospital in Sitamarhi, a
heart hospital in Muzaffarpur and a general
hospital in Gaya.
Nearly 40 villages in Bihar will have a cultural
center, roads and healthcare facilities to
commemorate the long ties of Bihar with
Mauritius.
On April 23, 2007 Patna saw ‘Who’s who’ of India
Inc came to Patna promising to assist Bihar in
getting back its past glory. Twelve groups have
been formed to come out (name of the head of the
group in bracket) with their ideas on harnessing
agriculture (Anand Mahindra, M&M), easing credit
flows (KV Kamath, ICICI), urban design for
emerging Bihar (Hafeez Contractor, reputed
architect of Mumbai), harnessing private sector
(Kumar Mangalam Birla, Aditya Birla group),
empowering through IT (S. Ramadorai, TCS),
meeting energy concerns (Sanjiv Goenka, CESC),
new heath paradigm (Analjit Singh, Max
Hospitals), skill multiplier (Tarun Das, CII),
alleviating poverty and keeping growth engines
going (B. Muthuraman, Tata Steel), building
Bihar brand (Shobhana Bharatia, Hindustan
Times), mainstreaming the rural economy (Sunil
Bharati, Airtel), and importance of tourism,
travel and employment (Priya Paul, Park Hotel
group).
Nitish Kumar sought their assistance in three
ways: at individual level, by persuading their
friends to whom they have better reach, and fine
tuning of policies.
Are these not the indicators of resurging Bihar?
If not what else can be the indicators?
Unfortunately, the national newspapers that I
get in Noida or available on web hardly cover
the news from Bihar or for that matter any other
state. All these are interesting readings.
I don’t doubt the sincerity of Nitish Kumar or
NK Singh, but I doubt if the Bihar ministry has
sufficient number of enthusiastic and missionary
ministers and bureaucrats to support the
projects that can take Bihar ahead with speed of
implementation fast enough to make up the lost
years of stagnations.
I do also wish that opposition must play a
mature role. Let Laluji and his brothers-in-law
restrain themselves in creating bad news every
other day. Let Raghuvansh Prasadji use his
doctoral arguments to get Bharat Nirman
implemented in at least the constituencies of
RJD MPs and legislators.
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Comments: |
It is not a good idea to blame
national newspapers on covering
resurgent Bihar. e.g. the Times Now,
CNN-IBN and other news channels have
broadcast several programs on
Spiderman, Bhojpuri version of
recent Hollywood block buster. This
dubbing alone costs more than 3
crore rupees, which is more than the
amount incurred on making of any
Bhojpuri film ever.
Every Saturday at 1 pm, Bhojpuri
films are shown on STAR GOLD.
For last few weeks, Ravi Kishan was
appearing on various news channels
to acknowledge the premier of
Bhojpuri film Ganga that was shown
on SAHARA channel last Sunday.
On ETV, you can see dancing and
singing Kalpana, Manoj Tiwary,
Chhaila Bihari etc on the tune of
Bhojpuri songs.
On Bhojpuria.com, there is an ad of
Khagariya waali Bhauji, first ever
Angika film.
The things that were ignored or
neglected in the past are matter of
priority and pride now. Earlier
Biharis were shying to speak in
their native language, now their
tongues are starved to speak in
native, ears eager to listen in
Bhojpuri, Maithili, Magahi or Angika,
and eyes glued to watch Bhojpuri
songs and movies in TV channels.
Now-a-days, few feel good factors
are happening for Bihar. -
Parshuram - May 2, 2007 |
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