Bihar has been credited with impressing and attracting many poor and underdeveloped countries through its turn around story and impressive growth rate and many nations in Asia and Africa hope to take a lesson from the state's successful experiment with development.

 

Chairing a session on innovations in government at the Bihar Growth Conference organized by International Growth Centre (IGC) and ADRI on Sunday, the second and concluding day of the conference, IGC deputy executive director Adnan Qadir Khan said, "Bihar gives hope to those who are in the business of development and who want change. Bihar is the place which gave a big message of the politics of development and many countries in Asia and Africa have realized if Bihar can do this why can't they." He particularly referred to Pakistan and Sierra Leone in Africa which are highly impressed with the Bihar model of development.

Khan, who belongs to Pakistan, stressed on how to make effective public system and asserted that public sector has to be strengthened to check economic slide. "India's growth will be retarded if public sector is not strengthened," he said.

Some bureaucrats told the gathering about the government's innovative measures and said it ensured good governance and formation of policies for the public welfare. Building construction department secretary Chanchal Kumar, who earlier served as special secretary to the CM for many years, referred to the Right to Services Act, Bihar Special Courts Act and Jankari call centre under RTI, to name a few.

"These innovative ideas helped break the monopoly of bureaucracy, which was being seen as unaccountable. These measures brought greater discipline and work culture, apart from providing much succour to the common people," said Kumar.

Road construction department secretary and MD of Bihar State Road Construction Corporation Pratyaya Amrit, who shot into fame for his work in the revival of Bihar State Pul Nirman Nigam, threw light on the metamorphosis of the Nigam which was under liquidation. He gave credit to the state government which, he said, meant business. For the first time in the country, the mobile inspector software was used to monitor the construction of hundreds of bridges across the state.

Amrit said it was because of the innovative ideas that the turnover of the Nigam rose from Rs 43 crore in 2006 to Rs 1,200 crore in 2012. Similarly, in road sector, the construction of roads rose from 380km in 2004-05 to 3,500km a year now.

Highlighting how the government grappled with challenges in improvising the primary education scenario in the state, principal secretary, education, Amarjeet Sinha said, "Some 8,000 to 9,000 schools in the state don't have a building or space and this is a big challenge for the government." Sinha said the government has been trying to attract children from Mahadalit and minority community to schools.

 Bihar Health Society secretary Sanjay Kumar said more innovations was not what the government needed for now as there might be problems in coordinating and training the junior staff in the hierarchy. Referring to the Jawahar Rojgar Yojana, he said there have been changes brought almost every year in it since the programme started, causing much practical difficulty to the staff.

Later, Rajesh Chakrabarti of the Indian School of Business lauded the efforts of Bihar government headed by Nitish Kumar and presented through PowerPoint presentation how innovative ideas have changed the situation in law and order, health and infrastructure to effect a turnaround in the state through.

source :TNN