Nitish looks upon Centre for more investments in Bihar

Ahmedabad, Nov 26: Calling upon the Centre to come forward with more public investments in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said it must do so, to remove regional disparities and achieve all round growth.

He said larger public investments in the state will compensate for the tardy private fund flow during the transition period.

''A state like Bihar which has benefitted only partially from the recent liberalisation efforts and will take some time before private funds can be attracted, deserves much larger public investments,'' he said while delivering a lecture on 'The Challenges and Opportunities in Transforming Bihar' here at the IIM-A.

Later talking to reporters, he said he had given the Centre a proposal enlisting the priority areas in which the state needed attention. Giving an instance, he said the Centre could help in expediting the inter-linking of rivers project.

''Among the flood-affected in the country, 50 per cent of them are from Bihar,'' he pointed.

The Central government could also give such fiscal benefits as sales tax exemption, relaxation of registration fees, etc, he said.

''It is because of these concessions that all investments are going to Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh,'' he pointed out.

Emphasising that the Centre must give that ''crucial push'' to 'endemically' backward states, he said Bihar needed participation of not only the Centre, but other states, academic community, voluntary organisations, scientists and knowledge managers to meet the daunting development challenges.

''We need partnership. I am seeking to innovate and perhaps leapfrog,'' he said.

Calling for a policy of ''positive discrimination'' from the Centre, Mr Kumar said mere dependence on Planning Commission funds for backward districts was not enough to enable Bihar to join the national mainstream. He said Bihar has been weakened after the partition of the state, adverse land-man ratio and shortage of minerals and raw materials.

''In special circumstances like this, should not there be a coherent policy on resource sharing at the time of bifurcation of states?'' he asked.

He said there should be also policies by which landlocked states like Bihar could go for partnerships with states having long coast line and have joint ventre programmes as part of developmemt initiatives. ''India is a sovereign country and the inter-state boundaries are merely for administrative convenience.

The overall objective is to secure a balanced development and have policies to enable the weak to join the national mainstream,'' he stressed.

Quoting President A P J Abdul Kalam, he said that if India had to become a developed nation by the year 2020, Bihar must progress by 2015 or the development of the entire nation would be stalled.

Despite inheriting an administration that was in ''a mess'', the Chief Minister claimed that his government has succeeded in bringing about a transformation in the state. ''Bihar has been backward on all indicators. It had maximum number of illiterates, low health quotient, maximum unemployment prevailed etc. Everybody had dismissed the state off, and said nothing can turn it around, but now there has been a definite change,'' he said.

Stating that he had promised growth with justice, he said the first task on hand was to deal with the law and order situation.

''Now the crime rate has declined and there has been remarkable speed in trial of cases. Conviction rates have risen too.'' He said police have been strengthened by the founding of the Special Auxilliary police, comprising 4949 former armymen for improving the law and order situation.

He said police are also being trained to deal with citizens compasionately. ''They have been asked to deal with children who are school dropouts, especially with care and bring them back to school,'' he said.

The government has initiated an integrated education development programme under ''Mukhya Mantri Samagra Vidyalaya Vikas Yojna''and formed the Common School System Commission, to steer the education sector in the state.

''A decision for establishing Nalanda Open University, to revive the glorious history has been taken. Chanakya Law University was set up to provide five-year-degree course,'' he said.

He said Bihar is the first state to implement Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (REGS) in 15 districts. It has also accorded 50 percent reservation for women in all posts in the panchayat, he claimed.

He said the major achievement was that people are now more confident and feel as if they live in a free atmosphere. ''They move about freely as gun-trotting criminals are no more seen on the streets of Bihar,'' he said.

UNI