The Chief Minister of Bihar,Nitish Kumar celebrated two years of his government which has made “big mouth” politicians like Raghuvansh Prasad Singh nervous and worried.Mr.Singh says that the chief Minister spurns central funds and has let rural development projects suffer.According to him, Bihar could benefit from a financial assistance from his Ministry of Rural Development, but the state government does not seem interested.“I write four letters to him (Nitish) every month. He does not even bother to write back. All we get from him in terms of response are official receipts. This is shocking,” Raghuvansh Prasad says.
Raghuvansh P.Singh is only playing politics, as he always does, at the cost of the well being of the state he also belongs to.His party (RJD) ruled the state for more than fifteen years,destroying all the social,economic,educational and agricultural infrastructure. He was very much part and parcel of the Destruction Brigade.Now when the state government has done a tremendous job which is being appreciated too,these leaders are trying to put obstructions for their own sake. They know that people have realised the importance of good governance and that a non-performer stands no chance in the upcoming elections.So, like his mentor Lalu P.Yadav ,he has started misusing his ministry to put the state government in bad light.Lalu is misusing the resources of railways for politicking and he is twisting facts and figures for his own purpose.
Bihar’s rural development minister Baidyanath Prasad Mahto claims that he had replied to Raghuvansh’s letters thrice pointing out anomalies in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), but did not receive any communication in this regard.It is a fact that the funds under NREGA were “need-based” so there is no question of surrendering funds to the Centre. Bihar government had spent Rs 1198.46 crores and distributed 56.37 lakh job cards till September 2007 under NREGA scheme.
Strangely,the Centre had directed the state to employ Rozgar Sevaks in each of the 8,463 panchayats at a remuneration of Rs 2,000 per month which is less than the minimum wage of Rs 81 per day.Even after pointing this deliberate howler, Mr.Singh did not heed the suggestion of raising the sum to at least Rs 3,000 per month.
The Centre had fixed Rs 24,000 as the cost of each IAY unit when the rate of bricks was Rs 1,670 per thousand. Now, the bricks cost Rs 2,300 per thousand.But the Union Rural Development ministry did not revise the budget and as a consequence, many of the units still remain incomplete.
Bihar made use of 85 and 81 per cent of Indira Awas funds in 2005-’06 and 2006-’07 respectively;and 65 and 56 per cent of the funds under the Swarna Jayanti Swarojgar Yojna in 2005-’06 and 2006-’07 respectively. In the current financial year however, only 32 per cent of the funds have been used so far mainly because of the devastating floods in north Bihar .
The money received under the National Calamity Fund never lapses. The Centre gives away 75 per cent of the total fund while the state has to contribute the remaining 25 per cent.This fund is always there to be used during any disaster.The state government had, in fact, written to the Centre for additional funds from the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) for flood relief.
Mr.Singh should be gracious enough to appreciate that after two decades,there is some semblance of good governance in Bihar and normalcy is returning slowly but steadily.It is expected from politicians of every party to refrain from petty politics for the larger good of the state, otherwise,such a large population can not be taken for a ride forever…
