Highlight on core competence of Bihar: Nitish

Patna, Aug 6: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has urged the media to refrain from 'pinpointing' Bihar's backwardness and said it should concentrate on its achievements in agriculture and other sectors.

Speaking at a function here last night, the chief minister regretted that majority of the Indian and foreign media were of the opinion that there has not been any economic growth in Bihar for the past many years due to factors like corruption and virtual lawlessness.

The chief minister was attending the launch of the new Hindi edition of 'India Today' news magazine for Bihar and Jharkhand.

''No one bothered to highlight the many positive aspects of this state, both in terms of ecomonic growth and its rich cultural heritage,'' Mr Kumar regretted and said that many people were unhappy following the creation of Jharkhand since they felt that majority of the mininig industry and underground natural resources had now gone to Jharkhand and so Bihar would have no hope of regaining its prosperity.

Claiminig that the people of Bihar are among the most laborious people, the chief minister said his 19-month government had 'vowed' to bring back the glory of the state with several time bound programmes and project Bihar as 'one of the most ndustrial, intellectually sound,safe and beautiful states of India'.

Citing the tremedous potential of the growth of tourism in Bihar, particularly in and around several historial places like Nalanda, Bodah Gaya, Pawa Puri and the capital city of Patna which was previously known as Pataliputra, the chief minister claimed that the state was also one of the most fertile in terms of agricultural production.

Despite facing the fury of devastating floods every year, primarily because of release of huge water from the upper regions of Nepal, agricultural production in Bihar was one of the highest in the country, Mr Kumar said and claimed and urged the media to highlight these aspects more in their reports to enable others to know more about the state in right perspective.

Earlier speaking on the occasion, BJP leader and popular cine star from Bihar Shatrughan Sinha, known as Bihari Babu,also referred to many a positive aspects of the state and urged the media to bring them to the fore more and more to ward off the general misconception among the outsiders.

India Today editor and noted journalist Prabhu Chawla, while elaborating the reason behind bringing out a separate edition of the magazine for Bihar and Jharkhand, said the number of readers of hindi magazines in the country was highest in Bihar and paid tributes to their intellectual mind.

Promising to highlight the ''positive aspects'' of the state more as well as the state politics, Mr Chawla said, however, any corruption in the name of development would not miss our hawk eyes.

It would also be our endeavour to make the people aware of the future growth potential of Bihar and in which manner the administration was making progress to prove that it was sincere in discharging its duties and not wandering public money in the name of public utility services.

UNI