Bihar moves another step to weed out corruption

Nearly 70,000 officials in Bihar are in trouble for not submitting their assets details to the state government as part of a crackdown on corruption. Their salary for a month is likely to be withheld, officials say.

The deadline to submit assets details ended two days ago.

Deepak Kumar, principal secretary of the general administration department, told IANS that the government has decided to withhold the salary for the month of February of all those officials who have failed to submit their assets details.

He said the majority of officials from the block level office to district headquarters and state secretariat had submitted the information by Monday night.

“The state government will make all the government officials’ assets public in the next two to three days and post it on the government official site,” Kumar said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s initiatives to check corruption are showing results.

Nearly 85 percent of over 4.5 lakh government officials, including Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in Bihar, had submitted their assets details till Tuesday night.

Nitish Kumar had declared a war against corruption after becoming chief minister for the second consecutive term in November last year. “It is part of Nitish Kumar’s efforts to weed out corruption,” an official in the Chief Minister’s Office said.

Setting an example, the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues had declared their assets Dec 31. The details are posted on the state government’s official website.

BFVDC to be developed as service provider !!

The Bihar Fruit and Vegetable Development Corporation (BFVDC) will be developed as a service provider. A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting of the agriculture department held under the chairmanship of chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday.

The CM said that under the state’s food policy, after developing the corporation as service provider, ripening chamber of tetra packing unit will be set up. Bihar is a leading state in fruit and vegetable production and it produces 133 lakh metric tonnes vegetables and 38 lakh metric tonnes fruits every year.

It was also decided at the meeting that the agriculture department’s 25-acre land at Mithapur farm would be developed as an agriculture complex. Two models were presented before the chief minister in this connection. The CM directed agriculture production commissioner A K Sinha to remove encroachment from the premises of bazaar samitis. He also directed him to take action against officials under whose tenure these premises were encroached and they failed to take action to remove them.

Meanwhile, agriculture minister Narendra Singh showed potatoes grown by the farmers of Sohdih in Nalanda district through organic farming. He informed the chief minister that in organic farming less manure is used.
Source: BFVDC to be developed as service provider

China to explore business opportunities in Bihar !!

Consul general of China based at Kolkata Zhang Lizhong would lead a delegation of Chinese business and industry circles to Bihar in the near future to explore possible tie-ups with Bihar industrial and business groups to establish trade and industrial activities in joint venture.

Lizhong, who takes care of such explorations in the eastern Indian states of West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Bihar, said that Bihar under CM Nitish Kumar has become an “attractive” proposition for joint-venture business and industrial activities.

Lizhong, who was interacting with the state’s trade and industry circles at a meet organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at a premier hotel here, said that 20 Chinese companies have set up their business houses in Kolkata alone. On the other hand, nine other companies have shown interest to start 14 units in the eastern states, including in the steel sector.

According to him, Bihar had a long tradition of association with China as the latter’s saints visited it during the ancient period. That apart, both India and China have fixed a goal and target to augment their trade volumes, he said, and added that this had opened a new opportunity both for China and Bihar industrial and trade circles to start their mutually advantageous business activities.

He also said that Kolkata had a significant number of people of Chinese origin, and they were living in complete harmony with the local people there, as he had experienced during his interactive meet with them.
Source: China to explore business opportunities in Bihar

Bihar silent revolution: 30,000 women now own land

Until two-and-a-half years ago, Parvatia Devi and Kamla Devi were among the poorest of the poor. They worked as farm labourers and did odd jobs to eke out a living. But today they are proud owners of land and part of the silent revolution through which nearly 30,000 women have been provided land across Bihar.
The state government has distributed over 14,000 acres of land among the poor and landless women in the last three years.
"The state government has distributed 14,722.22 acres of 'bhoodan' (redistributed) land in the last three years (2007 to 2010)," an official of the chief minister's office said here.
A revenue department official told IANS here that for the first time, land ownership rights of the bhoodan lands were being given to women in Bihar.
Last year, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced that the state government will provide land ownership rights to women in landless families.
He said the decision will strengthen women's position in society. "It will give them (women) more power," he said.
And if Parvatia and Kamla's examples are anything to go by, the initiative seems to be bearing fruit.
Owning around half acre of land each, the women, residents of the drought-hit Gaya district, supplement their income from the farm produce.
And with the economic independence, however marginal, they are also seeing an improved social status, and are respected both by their families and their communities.
Vimla Devi, who works as a wage labourer, said it was a great feeling to be able to own land.
"I am thankful to the state government for it because now I have my own place in my family and society," said Vimla, who lives in a village near Naubatpur in Patna.
Another beneficiary, Shakuntala Devi, said having ownership rights will help women be more assertive of their rights.
"At last, we can have a say in decisionmaking," she said.
Bihar Bhoodan Yagna Committee president Shubham Murti said distribution of bhoodan land among women had been made possible by the positive approach of the government.
The land distribution programme is one of the Bihar government's many women empowerment initiatives.
A total of 50 percent of seats in village panchayats, block development committees and district boards are reserved for women. Three years back, the government also reserved 50 percent of teaching vacancies in government-run primary and secondary schools for women.

Source: Bihar's silent revolution: 30,000 women now own land

Nitish meets PM, seeks cooperation in his development efforts !!

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking the Centre's cooperation in his development efforts and raised the problem of drought in the state.In a seventeen point memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister, Kumar sought special category status for Bihar, more funds for the state, coal linkage to power projects and expeditious setting up of Nalanda International University.

Kumar also demanded re-imbursement of a sum of Rs 970 crore spent by the state government over maintenance of national highways.In a letter to Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Kumar thanked him for the additional allotment of Rs 1000 crore under the Bihar Special Plan for 2010-2011.Kumar, who came here to attend the Chief Ministers' Conference on internal security yesterday, will also meet Finance Minister Pranab Mukheree and Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav tomorrow.In his letter to the Prime Minister, Kumar also asked for Presidential assent to the Bihar Sugarcane (Purchase and Supply) Regulation Act 1981 and withdrawing the Sugarcane (Control) Order permitting only existing sugar factories to provide ethanol directly from sugar cane juice.Addressing a press conference here, Kumar said that the Centre's non cooperation on coal linkage and ethanol issue is preventing major investments from coming to the state.In his letter, the Bihar Chief Minister sought "favourable consideration" of the Centre on these issues and urged the Prime Minister to consider constituting a Special Task Force under the latter's Principal Secretary to monitor implementation and keep him informed on the progress on these demands.Seeking central assistance for drought, Kumar said only a sum of Rs 341.08 crore has been released to the state of Rs 1459.54 crore sanctioned against the demand of Rs 6573.45 crore sought by the state and requested him to sanction and release the remaining funds immediately. He also invited the Prime Minister to visit Bihar.

Kumar said the state should be given special category state to attract investment and asked for an appointment from the Prime Minister so that an all party delegation can come to submit him a memorandum on this issue.He also said there is a need to reverse the "downward trend" of gross budgetary support for states.In a separate letter addressed to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Kumar reiterated the demand for declaring Bihar a special category state and expressed concern over "dwindling share of Bihar in the 13th Finance Commission grants".

He demanded an independent commission to identify BPL families and revision in allocation of Bihar in Public Distribution System and other social sector schemes.