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Static Bihar and Dynamic Biharis
By Indra
July 3, 2008 |
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My problem
has been my expectation to see some fast
transformation and achievement. Last time Ashok
came here en route to Vadodara after visiting
our village during Holi, I asked him regarding
if the NREGs is effectively functioning there.
His reply was in negative. Basically, nothing
worth mentioning is happening, neither it is
serving the purpose of the people for it was
meant. Last week, I read a detail report about
the NREGs in Outlook Business. The NREGs is
failing to provide much-needed livelihoods and
community assets as desired by those who
perceived the scheme.
Unfortunately, now it is the people right in the
villages who are involved in rampant corruption.
The beneficiaries require education about their
rights. NGOs, media, and dedicated officers must
monitor it by building foolproof, transparent
system.
Another recent decision of the Bihar government
to develop self-contained maha-Dalit colonies in
every Panchayat across the state, which would
have a house, built on four decimal land for
every such family, a school, a hospital, a park
and drinking water facilities on "gairmazrua
(government)" land, was really heartening. The
maha-Dalits includes Mehtar, Halkhor, Dom, among
others, constitute about 40 per cent of the
total Dalit population in the state. And their
condition still remains pitiable. I wish this is
not an announcement with election in mind but a
genuine endeavour to help the deprived through
empowering them.
However, the most worrying part for me was the
report that Bihar is among the states where the
level of corruption is still "alarming". The
"India Corruption Study 2007", brought out by
NGOs Transparency International India (TII) and
Centre for Media Studies (CMS), found that about
one-third of Below Poverty Line (BPL) households
in the country bribed officials to avail a total
of 11 services - from police to PDS. Is it not
shameful?
But many individuals from Bihar working on as
missionary make one happy and proud of them. In
the wonderful special issue of 'India Today' on
50 pioneers of change, Amitabh Srivastava has
four such stories. Here are those four persons:
1. Deepak Kumar is a murder convict and has
served a 14-year jail sentence for killing an
influential co-villager over a property dispute.
But he is a changed man now. Deepak Kumar has
set up a residential, 15-roomed English-medium
Deendayal Kushepremi Central School up to Class
VII with eight teachers and more than 365
students-most of whom are poor.
2. Abhyanand, the Additional Director-General of
Police, Bihar Military Police is a legendary
personality by now. His Super 30 - a free IIT-JEE
coaching institute for 30 select youngsters from
underprivileged families in rural Bihar has
created a model for emulation. This year,
everyone from
the Super 30 group made the grade in what is
widely believed to be one of the toughest and
most competitive entrance examinations in the
world. Abhyanand for reason unknown will not be
teaching any more in Super 30. But as reported,
Abhayanand has another mission now. He " will
now expand the concept of Super 30 and pick
underprivileged Muslim students and train them
for competitive exams". Is it not a wonderful
mission?
3. Veena Devi, 35, a widow, is serving her
second-term as mukhiya (panchayat chief) of the
Loharpur Panchayat of Nawada district. She was
one of the four women village heads who shared
the dais with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at a national
convention of Panchayati Raj last year. There
hasn't been a single case filed against anyone
since Veena was elected for her second term. In
fact, she has persuaded everyone in her
Panchayat not to take their differences to a
police station.
4. Prabhat Shandilya and his Magadh Jal Jamaat
have so far revived more than a dozen abandoned
water sources including Saryu talab in Gaya,
created a few new ones, and most importantly
infused in the residents of several parched
villages of Gaya the need to conserve water and
to sustain the water table. Prabhat remains
unwilling to step into the spotlight. Late in
2006, the 8-km-long water channel from Maanpur
to Nanouk village was desilted bringing water to
32 tanks of the area. In 2007, it was the turn
for unclogging the 11-km-long Vanshi Nallah.
Shandilya and his men are presently busy
clearing up the 28-km-long water channel that
runs from Chapardah to Thaneta village.
5. Kaushilendra, the 2007 batch topper of the
IIM, Ahmedabad, and the son of a college
demonstrator in block town of Ekangarsarai in
Nalanda district that is the vegetable bowl of
Bihar has become a vegetable vendor "to earn
money and ensure quality prices to farmers and
quality product to citizens". Kaushilendra owns
today 50 carts that are selling vegetables in
"right measurement and right rate". Will
Kaushilendra be able to sustain his spirit? Will
he become the vegetable king of India? Perhaps,
the answers are not known, but Kaushilendra has
started in a revolutionary manner. I wish
Kaushilendra expanded his business model with
rural malls serving as hubs on the pattern of
ITC's Choupal Sagar on the GQ and East-West
corridor expressway. He can promote organic food
business too saving chemical and earning more
price.
While all these pioneers are trying to set
examples for the others in the state to
participate in the development of the state,
unfortunately, Lalu's clan is happy with the
gift from the sycophants of his party. Can't
there be some fast track courts as one for the
dons-turned-politicians for
politicians-turned-billionaires?
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