Bihar Diwas: Girls’ education, environment protection key focus areas, says CM

Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said that Bihar was passionately and diligently engaged in reviving its past glory, drawing inspiration from its illustrious past to work on its road map for a developed and prosperous state

Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said that Bihar was passionately and diligently engaged in reviving its past glory, drawing inspiration from its illustrious past to work on its road map for a developed and prosperous state.

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He was speaking at the Bihar Diwas function through video conferencing.

Bihar was notified as a separate province on March 22, 1922, and soon after Nitish Kumar assumed power, he decided to celebrate it as “Bihar Day” to make people aware of the state’s rich legacy in different fields. This year’s theme of “Bihar Diwas” is the government’s ambitious programme for environmental conservation “Jal Jeevan Hariyali”.

“Today is also the World Water Day and I thank the nodal department for the function, the education department, for making ‘Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali’ the theme this year. Climate change remains the biggest challenge across the globe. In Bihar, we have been working on it, resulting in increase in the green cover from mere 9% to over 15% since 2012. Now, under the ‘Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali’ programme, the objective is work on various aspects of environment and bring about required changes in our lifestyle, agriculture and approach before it is too late,” he said.

“Bihar has been a land of knowledge and salvation. We must apprise our new generations of its glorious heritage. Education and environment are the keys and therefore, the government is working on both. While gender disparity in education has almost ended at the secondary level, with more and more girls now coming forward to contribute to societal progress in different ways, Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali is at the nucleus of government planning with a slew of initiatives,” he said, adding that girls’ education also remained key to checking population explosion, as many studies had also pointed out.

The CM said that every Tuesday of the month had been earmarked for stocktaking of the progress made under the environmental programme, which focuses on reviving water bodies, encouraging climate-smart agriculture, harnessing solar energy, ensuring rooftop water harvesting and creating environmental awareness.

“So far, 15,229 water bodies like ponds, wells, ahar-paens and check dams have been revived and restored. Besides, around 12,000 water sources have been developed. The plan to take surplus Ganga water during flood season through pipeline to Nawada, Gaya and Rajgir is on in full swing and water harvesting facility developed in over 14,000 government buildings. Last year, against the target of planting 2.51 crore saplings despite the raging Covid-19 pandemic, 3.90 crore saplings were planted. Around 941 government building have been equipped with solar energy set-up,” he said.

The CM, however, lamented that while Bihar’s progressive work, especially in the field of environment conservation, had drawn the attention across the country and abroad, which led to invitation at the UN roundtable last year, the awareness within the state had left a lot to be desired. “Maybe because I don’t believe in advertising my work, as many states do. It is for the departments and officers to take the message to the people, who need to change their approach as per environmental needs. In Bihar, agriculture remains the mainstay and climate-smart agriculture is the demand of time. The infrastructure development in Bihar is for anyone to see and match with what existed prior to 2005 in terms of roads, bridges and electricity,” he said.

Warning against Covid-19 spurt

Kumar said Covid-19 situation is Bihar was well under control, but had started showing signs of increase in the state too. “The number of active Covid cases was less than 300 till a few days ago, but now it has crossed 500 here also. Holi is approaching and we need to be extra cautious, as many people will return to their native places ignorant about whether they are infected or not. It can be known only through testing. I have done detailed meeting with officials in this regard and constant vigil needs to be maintained,” he said.

Kumar said that without getting complacent, people need to draw lessons from the eight states, where the situation has worsened. “In Maharashtra, it seems to have crossed even the last year’s stage. Many other states are also witnessing increase. Awareness should be created to ensure that Holi celebration is restricted and not in mass gatherings,” he said.