Kang has plans for Bihar's core sector

BIHAR BALLOT

Meeting Bihar's chief secretary G S Kang triggers disbelief. The path to Kang's office was littered with unsuccessful attempts to discuss development with someone ""anyone""of significance. (The politicians, fighting to become the guardian of Bihar's fate, dismiss it as unnecessary distraction.)

Soon, as Kang begins to talk about the infrastructure, relief takes over. No other state needs to focus on infrastructure more than this one. The load shedding hours in the state often work as a tool to break the ice, much like the weather in England. Forget roads in the state, the state capital does not have one set of traffic lights that works.

"This year, we will spend Rs 200 crore on urban infrastructure in addition to the Rs 182 crore that we have received from the Finance Commission," says the tall and lanky sardar.

The money will be spent on developing five major urban centres: Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Darbhanga. The Rs 200 crore that the state is spending will be allocated to the five municipal corporations.

The money from the Finance Commission (Rs 182 crore) will be distributed among all the municipal corporations in the state.

The expenditure on roads is going to be Rs 2,400 crore, of which Rs 1,800 crore has come from the central government funds. A detailed project is being prepared.

However, the stretch that has already been chosen for development is the one connecting Darbhanga with Madhubani. It is a tricky stretch. Given a lot of water bodies in the middle, the whole road is likely to be like a bridge. Surprisingly, Kang says there is no shortage of electricity in the state. The problem, he says, is with the sub transmission system. Thus, the state is going to spend Rs 1,000 crore on transformers. Another Rs 1,200 crore has been earmarked for the rural electrification. The state, arguably the largest supplier of students and sick people to educational institutions and hospitals, respectively, outside the state, has also chalked out plans to develop these two areas.

It is going to the extent of offering the private sector some state-run hospitals minus the staff, if the private entity wants it that way.

A positive development in the last months, says Kang, has been that the crime rate has dropped. Kidnappings are still happening, he says, realistically, but fewer than before.

However, a lot will depend on whether the bureaucracy can manage its way past the new political order when it comes up. Will politicians, who now somehow tolerate the talk of development, think about it when in power?

Secondly, for private investment to really start flowing in, things have to improve on the ground. After decades of apathy and neglect, the state is unlikely to go far on the back of assurances.