"Biharis lack regional pride"

Vaishali MP and Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh discusses the causes behind Bihar's backwardness.

Vaishali MP and Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh discusses with Saif Shahin the causes behind Bihar's backwardness, and how he hopes to change things during his tenure.

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What do you think are the main reasons behind Bihar's decline?

The reasons are many. The first is lack of regional pride among the people of Bihar. People in most developed states have a sense of pride responsibility towards their region. Biharis, sadly, do not exhibit this quality.

Another factor is Bihar's disadvantageous geographical location. The rivers that flow down from the Himalayas cause regular floods, damaging crops, roads, houses and other infrastructure worth Rs 1,200-15,00 crore every year. This is huge. It also means whatever you set up today will be gone tomorrow. Planning for long-term development is extremely difficult in such a situation.

Waterlogging affects more than 10 lakh hectares of land every year, flooding some 27 of the 37 districts. However, seven other districts which fall in the rain-shadow zone suffer from incessant drought. You can imagine how difficult it is to manage the state's affairs for any government.

Bihar governments have also often blamed the Centre for being stingy when it comes to spending on their state.

The Centre has actively pursued an anti-Bihar policy right from the beginning of the planning era. In the first five-year plan, the Centre allocated a measly Rs 25 per head investment for Bihar, knowing well its tenuous geographical location and its need for support. The national per head investment at that time was Rs 40.

This attitude carried on throughout. The result was that though Bihar was the second or third in the country in terms of per capita income in 1947, it came down to 16th position by the fourth five-year plan, and touched bottom by the end of sixth.

Other Central policies also never had Bihar's interest in mind. The freight equalisation policy for instance, under which the Centre equalised the cost of minerals across the country, benefited Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and other states at the cost of Bihar. This practically killed all chances Bihar had for industrial development.

In a normal world, the cost of raw materials is low at the place they are being mined. But under this policy, investors in every part of the country had raw materials available in their backyard at the same price as in Bihar. Why would they then bother to come to Bihar to set up industry?

What role has casteism played in Bihar's underdevelopment?

Caste is not just a social but also an economic reality in Bihar, tied with the feudal agrarian structue. It discouraged the growth of a "culture of work" in the state, with the result that working is considered lowly in the state: it is only the underprivileged who work.

What about the failure of land reforms?

Zamindari was abolished by a legislative act. Bihar's people also actively participated in the Bhoodan movement. "Chakbandi" had to be stopped, after rich and influential farmers started using it to replace their barren plots with chaks of fertile land owned by poorer farmers.

What about land redistribution? Bihar has many landless labourers.

Land redistribution has happened "naturally" over the years, as families have enlarged generation by generation. Yes there are landless labourers, but that is a nationwide reality. More than one crore families are landless across the country.

What are your own plans for Bihar as the Rural Development Minister?

Bihar has been denied rural development money to the tune of Rs 1,800 crores by the Centre in recent years. The state has been getting some Rs 300 crores less than its due under programmes like Grameen Vikas, Indira Awas Yojana etc. for the last six years. But the state will now get all that is due to it.

Another priority area will be to increase rural employment. The Swarna Jayanti Grameen Swarozgar Yojana has been successful in several states, but not in Bihar. Under this programme, we will form self-help groups who will be trained and then financially aided in setting up small industries. The focus will be on providing employment to women and backward classes. We will also coordinate with banks and other financial institutions for this.

A third priority area will be connecting villages with towns and cities under the Prime Minster Grameen Sadak Yojana.

What role can the new panchayats play in Bihar's future development?

We need to promote gram sabhas actively to make panchayati raj matter. Gram sabhas should meet every two-three months. They should decide the kind of development activities their area should have, and monitor their implementation. They should ensure that money allocated for development is not siphoned off.

Is private investment being invited?

Yes it is. We are working on a programme under which the government will provide two-thirds of funding for development work and invite the rest from investors.

Bihar has several ministers in the Union Cabinet now. Can we expect some benefit will accrue from this?

Bihar sent more than 12 ministers to the last Cabinet, but instead of working for their state's development, they joined hands with others to defame it.

But things will be different now. This government is seriously committed to improving Bihar, and we will succeed.