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Nitish Engineering: Reconstructing Bihar
Nitish, a calm and composed personality and a strict disciplinarian, had passion for politics from his younger days. Considered as the Chanakya of Lalu Prasad, he launched the Samata Party, became a constituent of NDA and parted ways with it recently. Strongly opposed to pariwarvaad and considered as the CEO of Bihar, he is one of the probables for prime ministership. From among the Bimaru states, Bihar used to be a pejorative word embracing inequality, injustice, and insurgency. It was synonymous with crime, corruption and caste rivalries. Robberies, snatchings, kidnapping/murder of whistle-blowers, or the parallel government of Shahabuddin were the order of the day. However, resurgence of growth has led to good governance. Now, people from other countries,too, are curious to know more about the Bihar model.
To bring administration at people’s doorsteps, Nitish/his team under Parvas Yatra stay for days in a district, monitor developmental progress, and know problems from horse’s mouth. Similarly, under Seva Yatra, the Chief Minister moves around the state monitoring the implementation of welfare schemes. Overwhelmed with spectacular progress, Amartya Sen remarked that positive initiatives and leadership have led to Bihar’s new identity. Thus, Nitish engineering is removing rust from governmental machinery and oiling it to deliver faster results. Conversely, Bihar’s growth remains skewed, uneven and limited to trade, hotels, and communication. Real estate is Patna centric; industrial investment is in miniscule; per capita income is declining; major industry is not coming up due to lack of power etc. On human development from Bihar is at the bottom of the scale with the highest concentration of people living below poverty line. Politically, leadership faces problems in urban areas where its former ally has mass base. To some critics, Bihar growth is hinged largely in comparison with non-performance of Lalu; not sustainable; and smart work of spin doctors working in Nitish favour. They argue that double digit growth when starting from zero is meaningless. Hence, Bihar’s development is no more a miracle. Despite this criticism, fact remains that Nitish engineering embarking on a novel journey has brought sea change in Bihar’s governance. But for too much repetition, Reconstructing Bihar is an interesting treatise and some of its schemes deserve emulation/replication for good governance.
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in
Nitish’s exemplary
leadership has restored the rule of law, transparency in functioning,
investment in infrastructure, and delivery of public services.
Recruitment of auxiliary police comprising former Army personnel; zero
tolerance towards corruption; establishing two central universities;
Balika cycle scheme and free uniform to girl students up to Class XII;
Super 30 for meritorious backward students to train them for IITs;
reserving 50 per cent seats for women in local/urban bodies;
subsidised diesel to avert rainfall deficiency, etc., have brought
radical reforms. World class bridges, roads and flyovers have
facilitated comfortable journey from any remotest place to the state
capital within six hours. Besides, Bihar has surpassed world record in
paddy and potato production.