Bihar 2006: Crimes persists, devp yet to take off

Patna, Dec 29: Crime graph in Bihar showed no sign of moving downward in 2006, the first full calendar year of NDA rule in the state, where the promised change in development sector was yet to take off.

The year under review witnessed emergence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the undisputed leader of JD(U), outwitting in the process his one time mentor George Fernandes while Mr Kumar's bete noire Railway Minister Lalu Prasad launched his campaign to regain the lost ground.

NDA claimed full credit for retaining Bhagalpur and Nalanda parliamentary seats and wresting Manihari assembly seat from the Congress.

The by-polls exposed the lack of unity and cohesion among UPA partners which failed to field a common candidate in Bhagalpur and Nalanda.

For the government, there were moments of joy and agony.If reservation of seats for women and backward classes in panchayat bodies was a matter of pride for the NDA government, they were on a tight spot when Patna high court quashed an order alloting land to film personality Prakash Jha.

Loss in all the recent byelection came as a big blow to UPA and Lalu Prasad's RJD although the charismatic leader had an occasion to heave a sigh of relief when he alongwith his wife Rabri Devi were acquitted in a case of disproportionate assets.

On the political front, Mr Kumar failed to expand his cabinet during the year as claimants outnumbered the number of vacant ministerial berths.

The government also failed to attract investors to the state despite pronouncing a generous industrial policy and achieving the target of 8.5 per cent GDP growth rate during the 11th five-year plan would remain elusive if the tardy pace of development in 2006 is taken into account.

The law and order situation showed no sign of improvement during 2006 as compared to the previous if figures are to be believed. NDA government came to power with the promise to give Bihar crime-free society.In fact total recorded crime per month increased from 8731 in 2005 to 9100 during the current year derived from the figure available till September end. Average monthly incidents of murder were 276 in first nine months of 2006 as against 285 in the previous year, a decline by nine cases each month.

Rape cases registered with the police were 87 in average per month during first three quarters of the current year while the same was 81 in 2005. Cases of kidnapping per month also registered an increase from 81 in 2005 to 87 in first nine months of 2006.

Most sensational crime during the year was the murder of noted professor and historian Papiya Ghose which overshadowed all other similar incidents. To contain the rising number of crimes, steps were initiated to modernise and strengthen the police force. A special auxiliary force was raised with 5,000 retired defence personnel primarily to combat the growing henace of ultra left extremism. Changes were made several times during the year in the police setup making individual police officers accountable for lapses in maintaining law and order.

The year 2006 began with a boom for NDA when Buta Singh had to make an unceremonious exit from gubernatorial post following a Supreme Court judgement declaring unconstitutional the recommendation to dissolve the 13th Bihar assembly. Mr Singh had earned the wrath of NDA for denying it the right to form government with the help of breakway faction of LJP.

With a number of legislators having criminal antecedents getting elected, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had a tough job to maintain his clean image and at the same to keep the criminal turned legislators in good humour.

He was partially successful by enhancing salaries and other benefits to legislators and keeping the expansion process of his ministry pending indefinitely.

Mr Kumar had to spend some anxious moments when his cabinet colleague Janardan Singh Sigriwal was engaged in fisticuffs with JD(U) leader Ram Pravesh Rai in full public view and JD(U) legislators Sunil Pandey and Chhedi Paswan revolted openly against state leadership of the party.

Another embarassment came for Mr Kumar when a close associate of George Fernandes, Arun Kumar contested Nalanda bielection as independent candidate.

Despite stray cases of revolt, Mr Nitish Kumar was able to keep the flock in the party together and run the coalition government with BJP without any hitch.

Extension of rural employment guarantee scheme to all the 38 districts of Bihar against allotment of funds for 23 districts by the Centre and introducing 'Janata Durbar' in the style of Mughal emperors', am-e-durbar, were two issues for which NDA claimed credit. Although official announcement has been made, list of beneficiaries under employment guarantee scheme is yet to be prepared and 'Janata Durbar' launched with wide hype lost its sheen soon after.

Barring the frequent transfers which gave many top officers anxious moments, the bureaucracy had occasions to smile. The dearness allowance to government employees was increased twice during 2006 from 21 per cent to 29 of the basic salary. Proposed introduction of five day week would be another boon to government employees.

During the year under review, the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar appeared to be in a mood of doling out gifts to one and all, of course out of public exchequer.His government raised basic grade health officers' salary and enhanced the rate of stipend for post graduate medical students and remuneration of house surgeons.

The government also implemented the University Grants Commission package for teachers and non teaching employees of colleges and universities, including raising the superannuation age by two years.

Teachers and non teaching staff of government recognised minority secondary schools also had their share of the cake when revised scales of pay were granted to them with retrospective effect from January1,1996. The government also decided to keep the teachers away from non teaching assignments.

The recommendations of Shetty Commission were implemented thus benefiting the judicial officers in a number of ways.

Perks bestowed on judicial officers included telephones at office and residence, allotted cars, allowances for newspapers and entertainment, free power and electricity upto 50 per cent and career progression benefits from January 1,1996.

During the year, lawmakers extracted their share of benefits in the form of upward revision in salary, perks and pension, besides raising peripherial benefits.

Not only the NDA government got three pieces of legislation passed, empowering the government to effect hike in salaries and perks of legislators in future without sailing through the arduous route of approval from both the houses of legislature, but also granted pension, car advance facility and rail coupons to members of 13 assembly who were not sworn in as members.

UNI