Nitish Kumar takes on opposition, presents Bihar turnaround story

Nitish Kumar said his government was working on an agreement with the Tata technical group for skilling the youth in the state in areas such as electric vehicles maintenance, advance welding, 3D printing etc.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday countered the opposition’s narrative with point by point rebuttals and presented the state's growth story under his government amid frequent spats with the leader of opposition (LoP) Tejashwi Prasad Yadav in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar responded to all allegations made by the opposition in the assembly. (PTI)

At one point, when Kumar referred to his experience with the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Tejashwi intervened, asking him to narrate it, Kumar responded: “When I was at the Centre, you were in the lap. I have also taken you in my lap.”

He also took on the Congress leaders for pleading for reopening of liquor shops in the state by showing them their party’s membership form to underline that their position was contrary to a clause of their own party’s membership criteria.

“It (Congress membership form) says members will not touch intoxicants, but here they are acting to the contrary, though the decision to impose full prohibition in the state was taken following a unanimous decision of all the members,” Kumar said.

While giving government’s reply to the debate on motion of thanks to the governor’s address to the joint session of both houses, Kumar spoke at length on his government’s achievements, including the way the state responded during Covid-19 pandemic to record highest testing per million and the lowest death rate, steep fall in the infant and maternal mortality rates, 86% immunisation, and plans for making a self-reliant Bihar. However, the Opposition staged a walkout in the midst of his reply.

The CM said the government was working on an agreement with the Tata technical group for skilling the youth in the state in areas such as electric vehicles maintenance, advance welding, 3D printing etc. by setting up centres of excellence in the industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics in the state. “We have also been demanding permission from the Centre since 2007 for ethanol production and there was also a ₹210,000 crore proposal. However, the Centre denied it. Now the Centre has made a policy for it,” he added.

Kumar said that the government took every incident of crime seriously, and pointed out that as per the national crime record bureau (NCRB), Bihar was ranked 25th in terms of number of cognizable offences, contrary to what the opposition tries to portray, while responding to Tejashwi’s attack on law and order. “It was 23rd earlier. In a society, wrong doers are always there, but the government has been able to establish the rule of law,” Kumar added.

The CM said that the opposition parties needed to take note of the 10.5% growth rate achieved by the state in 2019-20 to realise how far it has come since 2004-05. “The budget size has increased from mere ₹23,885 crore to ₹218,000 crore since then, while the per capita income has increased from ₹7,954 to ₹50,765, resulting in marked improvement in the standard of living and growth in business activities,” Nitish Kumar said.

When Kumar referred to power supply to every household across the state, Tejashwi intervened, saying there was hardly any production of electricity in the state and the power rates were among the highest. Kumar pointed out that power consumption had reached 5932 mw and Bihar’s move to install pre-paid meters to address billing complaints had been lauded by the Centre. “We are also giving highly subsidized electricity for farming and have been demanding one nation, one power tariff, but tell me if there was electricity in villages before 2006,” he asked.

Maintaining that there had been a phenomenal increase in agriculture production and productivity in comparison to 2004-05, Kumar said now the emphasis was on organic farming and climate-smart agriculture to adapt with the changes. “The government is already working as part of its 7 Resolves (Part-2) campaign to ensure water to every farm, while procurement of farm produce has touched record levels. Paddy procurement this year reached 35.59-lakh mt,” he said.