Air of Change in Bihar

by Indra

December 20, 2005

After many years, we see some good news coming from the land of Ashoka and Guptas. I wish Buddha takes his rebirth and brings peace by transforming the dons and rangdars as he did by handling Angulimaal - the terror of his days. And some new Chandragupta comes in Bihar and handles the goons there ruthlessly. And some Chanakya advises Nitish and makes him succeed against the negative roles of the present opposition parties that had ruined Bihar in last 58 years.

Nitish Kumar has started very well. He removed the tainted minister within hours of getting a hint of it. He apologized for the bad behaviour of his minister. He has remained humble and magnanimous and skipped to getting any revengeful actions.

He too wants to wave the magical IT wand for Bihar. His government plans to take a big leap into e-governance by developing special website pages on the state’s official portal to know the exact progress of ongoing development projects and the grievances of people online. “The times have changed; now we will arrange things on our official website in such a way as to know everything minute-wise. It will make for transparency, accountability and responsibility to work with a target to achieve good governance and development across the state.” He promised to set up “gyan kendras” (knowledge centres) in every village to provide Internet facilities as part of an ambitious project to spread IT in rural Bihar.

Vowing to change the 'existing work culture' in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish wishes for effecting complete change in the existing work culture. New sugar mills would be opened in place of almost 'dead ones' in the state and agro-based industries would be set up. Effective steps were being taken to further intensify the drive to free Bihar from recurrence of polio cases. The state government had chalked out an ambitious plan for ensuring procurement of 15 lakh tonnes of paddy and rice this year for which the state food corporation, Biscomaun, Food Corporation of India, NAFED and other cooperatives would be made 'more active’.

Nitish has made it clear that policemen cannot report for duty with vermilion tikas. High-neck inners are complete no-nos as far as the chief minister is concerned, as are mufflers and civilian shoes, never mind the winter chill. "Officers and jawans are often found not wearing their uniform properly with the result that they look ridiculous. At times, such policemen look worse than homeguard jawans. When they include civilian attire in their uniforms, they look like jokers which is bad for the image of the force," reads the terse notice.

A World Bank team led by its India director Michael Carter visited Patna already and held meeting with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and other senior state officials to discuss possibilities of making investment in various developmental projects in Bihar.

Pledging to extend financial assistance in setting up basic infrastructure in the state, Carter said Bihar was ripe for development but before jumping into other areas, state's educational standard and the bureaucratic structure needed a complete overhaul to provide better business environment and manpower in the region. I wish the technocrat CM take advantage of World Bank’s interest even if it requires going out of the way, as Naidu of Andhra took to bring particularly Hyderabad on global IT map. If Bhuwaneswar can attract IT giants such as Infosys, why can’t Patna do that?

The Chief Minister has already made a major reshuffle in the administration. I wish he could put a brake on the transfer industry that demoralizes the officers, and could built in accountability factor in administration. And the transfers are rational in future for a clear-cut and transparent objective.

NITISH Kumar’s 'Programme for Good Governance (PGG)’ has come for the public and he says, "It is like a common minimum programme. It will form the basis of our government's working. Whatever projects and plans the government formulates, will be done keeping the PGG in mind." Sushil Kumar Modi, his deputy calls “it the Geeta or the Bible of the NDA government." Agenda are all that every one interested in Bihar dreams to happen:

• Make police accountable
• High-level committee on education
• Committee on healthcare and medical education
• More jobs in agriculture, IT, biotechnology etc
• Good roads, rural electrification
• Modernising power plants

Nitish sought five years to implement these programmes and promised to monitor them himself. A committee to reform the administrative machinery ‘will submit its report in three months". I thought he would make his plan executable in 4 years giving some time for starting and some for preparing for the next election too.

I only wish his government to make all projects undertaken with estimated time of completion and executor-in-charge available on the website and regularly updated. His ministers must acknowledge the suggestions made through the site. As on today, the site has freezed on 22.11.2005.

It is so heartening to hear a CM so confident of getting the Centre's help that is run by opposition. But I am sure the technocrats-an economist and an engineer can have some easy meeting ground for understanding each other and agreeing.

Is it not some thing different and freshening for the people of Bihar and even for all Indians?
 

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