Stressing on improvement of road connectivity in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today directed road construction department to reduce travel time to not more than five hours between here and corner of the state.
The road projects in Bihar should be executed expeditiously and ensure monitoring of the ongoing works to ensure that travel time by road from anywhere in the state to Patna should not take more than five hours, he told a review meeting of the road construction department.
The road projects should be conceived taking into account load of vehicles in future so that the users do not have problems, he told the meeting attended by Road Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav and high officials.
He said during construction of bridges, the road construction department should simultaneously construct approach roads so that they became viabile for users.
Kumar also reviewed progress of many
under-construction bridges, including the Digha rail-cum-road bridge on Ganga and others and stressed on speedy execution of all those road-cum-bridge projects.
Later, presiding over a review meeting of the finance department, he directed the implementation of student credit card for those talented to assist them to pursue higher studies.
The student credit card project should be implemented in mission mode as the scheme will improve gross enrolment ratio (GER) in Bihar, besides enabling the state to attain the target with regard to human resources development, he said.
The Chief Minister asked the finance department to explore means to raise revenue from internal sources and ensure 100 per cent utilisation of funds allocated to different projects, besides monitoring implementation of those schemes with central funds.
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Kumar said he had severed alliance with BJP nearly three years ago on 'principled issues' and his party and its alliance with RJD and Congress was written off in the wake of drubbing in the 2014 general elections.
"Those were tough days. But we regrouped and kept faith in the Grand Alliance and our strategy succeeded as the electorate of Bihar gave us an astounding mandate in the Assembly polls late last year.
"I congratulate the leadership of all Grand Alliance constituents for sticking together during tough days," he said.
The Chief Minister also took potshot at the RSS' decision for its cadres to wear full pants and said the outfit should change its venomous ideology instead of clothes.
Kumar feted his election strategist Prashant Kishore with a shawl and thanked him personally and on his allies' behalf for scripting a stupendous victory in the Assembly polls.
JD(U) also took decisions like starting membership drive, setting up offices and grievance redressal camps at the block and panchayat level, besides soliciting support of the party workers in enforcement of sale of country-made liquor from April 1, the party's state unit spokesman Niraj Kumar said.
The JD(U) had called the meeting to discuss and roll out three agendas membership drive, enforcement of country-made liquor ban and the chief minister's seven pledges.
