Shahzad( AL ANSAR MILLAT WELFARE SOCIETY)Since my last post, I have been looking for media reports to cite examples of achievements of Nitish Govt. However, everyday I get the news mostly similar to what I mentioned in the last post. May be that the negative and unusual events make the hot news.

Nitish Govt completed 4 years in office on 24th November, 2009 and the highlights of government version of its achievements have appeared in the press. I have also tried to gather some informal impressions from “table talk” in my social gatherings. In general, people appear to believe that:

* Law and order is relatively in better shape. People are less afraid of going out or travelling in odd hours.

* Significant increase in the number of children being enrolled in schools.
The official figure says that out of 25 lakh children out of school, 15 lakh have been enrolled during the last 4 years. In the same period, the student to teacher ratio has been brought down from 78:1 to 58:1.

* Significant improvement in health services including availability of doctors and supporting staff in primary and district hospitals.
The official report says the average patient turn out has increased from 39 to 4500 patients per month per health center during the last 4 years. In the same period, institutional delivery has increased from 45000 to 3.12 lakh resulting in significant decline in maternal mortality rate. [unfortunately the patient turn out data does not seem to match with earlier published data]

* Condition of roads in Bihar is comparatively better now. Construction of new roads, widening of existing roads and construction of bridges have remained a major focus of the government to develop the road network in the state.
The official data shows that some 117 bridges and culverts, and 2018.97 Km of road were constructed in the last 4 years. The plan outlay for road construction increased from Rs.133.85 cr to Rs.2489.15 cr.

There are many more things which can be written from the official reports regarding government’s achievements. I leave it to others to highlight them. But one thing is certain that the image of Bihar has changed from a non-performing to performing and growing state.

Shahzad(AL ANSAR MILLAT WELFARE SOCIETY)reminded of Chandra Babu Naidu who is regarded as the architect of modern Andhra Pradesh. Inspite of large scale development and modernization, Chandra Babu Naidu lost the elections. I am not competent to comment on political debacles, but any government not able to mitigate the sufferings of common people is bound to lose in the long run. I sometimes wonder how Patna, the capital city of a poor state, saw the affluence of Patna people with some 1700 cars and 300 Kg of gold being sold this Diwali, how people are aquiring wealth several times the salary they receive in their lifetime, and so on OR is it simply the index of developing Bihar.

The achievements of Nitish Govt is well demonstrated by “Economic Times Man of the Year Award” and “Politician of the Year Award” to be conferred on Nitish Kumar in January next. Nitish Kumar however admits that his efforts are negated by rampant corruption from top to bottom in state bureaucracy. But if the common man of the state is getting the benefit of development and is happy, there is no case for imminent fall of Nitish Govt. The development statistics must correlate to aspirations and happiness of the majority residing in the state.

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SHAHZAD (AL ANSAR MILLAT WELFARE SOCIETY) : In the last year of the first decade of the 21st century, the top Bihar politicians saw many
ups and downs in their career. Similarly, Bihar faced dry and wet spells almost simultaneously.
The effect of climate change or impact of political temperature? Or both?
The summer of 2009 severely hit two political heavyweights — Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan — who were trounced in the general election. While LJP chief Paswan tasted defeat from Hajipur, his ally and RJD supremo Lalu was trounced in Patliputra.
The defeat of the two flamboyant regional satraps, both important ministers in UPA government, enhanced the political stature of chief minister Nitish Kumar whose party JD(U) with BJP won 32 seats. The RJD was reduced to four and LJP failed to send a single representative to Lok Sabha.
But Nitish’s graph slipped in no time. After the general election as many as 18 assembly seats which fell vacant went to bypoll in September. The NDA, brimming with confidence, was in a great shock when its all but five candidates lost and the gainer was the alliance of RJD and LJP which had faced drubbing only a few months back.
This was a big shocker to Nitish who was flying high after the unexpected victory in May. The climatic change had its impact in Bihar. There was very scant rain causing drought-like situation in most of the central and some north Bihar districts. While some north Bihar districts were flooded at the same time. Bihar demanded two assistance packages — one for flood and another for drought. The Centre once again ignored as it had ignored demand for relief package for reconstruction of Kosi made since late 2008 repeatedly. The year 2009 began with Nitish going on his much-publicised Vikas Yatra which began from Patilar in Bagaha from January 19 which continued for over two months. In course of yatra, he also held cabinet meeting at Barbighi village in Begusarai on February 10, which was a historical event as cabinet meeting was held outside Patna first time in the history. Again, the year is ending with another cabinet meeting at Rajgir, at the height of 1300 feet under the shadow of Vishwa Shanti Stupa on December 29. The CM is spending the last week of the year in the serene surroundings of historical Rajgir.
As far as law and order is concerned Bihar remained by and large peaceful, but Maoists continued their stray attacks in which nearly 30 cops were killed. The police, however, succeeded in targeting the extremists and arrested several top Naxalite leaders and seized huge quantity of arms and ammunition from various places including state capital.

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