Nitish Kumar urges FICCI to invest in Bihar

New Delhi, Apr 8: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said law and order and development were the focus of his government and urged industrialists to invest in the state to ensure its faster development.

Addressing the industrialists at Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Mr Kumar said that the state government has developed a policy for rapid industrial development under which provision for time bound single window clearance for various proposals have been made. The state government has made separate policies for various industries like sugar, power etc.

He said that the law and order situation in Bihar has improved tremendously since his goverment took charge five months back. Crime rate has come down drastically with better apprehension of criminals, faster trial and better conviction.

Chief Minister said that to fill the backlog of large number of vacant posts in state police, the Bihar government has decided to appoint 5000 ex-servicemen. Of these 2000 appointments have already been made and remaining posts would be filled soon.

Now people are no longer afraid as incidents of kidnapping has reduced, he pointed out and cited the speedy trial and conviction within 90 days of the accused of Gopalganj kidnapping case.

The state government is also focusing on infrastructure development and has allocated Rs 2000 crore for road construction in the financial year 2006-07. It is also trying to improve the power situation in the state by clearing all the dues of NTPC and has urged centre to increase the power supply to the state by 200 MW from its present allocation of 1100 MW.

Meanwhile, the steps are being taken for developing the ancient university at Nalanda into an International University, he said and added that he would be meeting some people today in this regard.

A medical college and another for training of paramedics would be opened in Patna soon he informed, along with many law colleges in the state.

He urged FICCI to visit Bihar and make their own assessment of the improved situation there and then convince its members to invest in the state to accelerate its pace of development.

UNI