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(BiharTimes) With approaching Assembly election, a lot of hoopla is expected with regards to help extended to Kosi disaster affected region. Most of these are expected to be farther from the truth. State congress leaders are shamelessly expected to defend the patent indifference of central government in this matter rather than extracting what is due to Kosi affected people. It is confounding to see these peoples representative who seem to be behaving more as agent of partisan federal dispensation. They fail to answer why people of Kosi region should be deprived of what has been given to earthquake hit regions like Latur in Maharashtra, Kutch in Gujarat and more recently in case of Tsunami affected Tamil Nadu districts. Are they more concerned about safeguarding the interest of their high command than sharing the pain of the people they seek to represent?  Career politicians need to make their living out of favours trickling down from High Command. This is the reason why they are openly betraying the people whose interest they are expected to champion. Perhaps they forget that it is ultimately people who will provide them the livelihood as a politician in long run.
And of course there is this egoist, may otherwise be considered relatively efficient and effective, CM who deemed it fit to return the money donated by citizens of this country for their fellow brethren in Kosi disaster affected region. All this for the sake of some narrow political considerations which is anyway bound to boomerang on his government. The present NDA dispensation will have to explain their act of omission and commission to the people of Kosi region. Central leadership of BJP is ever willing to take up the causes of HP and Uttarakhand when it comes to special package; on that they don’t seem to show the same zeal in regards to issue pertaining to Bihar. If parliament can be stopped from functioning for caste census and for every other trivial issues then why no one considers stopping its functioning for the Kosi Disaster affected people. Laloo, Sharad and Ramvilas trio must respond. This very Sharad Yadav was hell bent on stopping parliament single handed on women reservation issue, then why he did not stop parliaments functioning on raw deal to Kosi region? Entire political spectrum of state and center has got to respond on this.
Just to highlight what people of Kosi have missed out on, let us consider the recent example of Tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation plan for Tamil Nadu. Reason for taking this state stems from the fact that then Finance Minister Mr Chidambaram was from Tamil Nadu and hence it can serve as an ideal benchmark.  It would be only reasonable to expect this benchmark to be followed in every other case of National Disaster. As such, in case of Tsunami, federal response was structured in three broad categories, viz:
1.      Immediate Relief & Response
2.      Reconstruction & Rehabilitation
3.      Long Term Focus on Infrastructure
Immediate Relief & Response was funded through National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) & Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF). The funding figures under these two sources were Rs. 617 Crores and Rs. 250 Crores respectively. On this count at least, the federal government has been quite helpful in case of Kosi region as well. It had immediately released Rs 1010 crores from NCCF for rescue and relief activity. Additionally, it had also released Rs 125 crores worth of grain for immediate relief.
However, it is the second and third categories where people of Kosi have reason to feel being let down. While in case of Tsunami, specific packages were drawn up to help with reconstruction and rehabilitation effort, there has been no such package in case of Kosi disaster affected. At best there were some  enhanced allocations under Ministry of Rural Development led by then Minister Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. But these were no specific scheme for reconstruction and rehabilitation and were in nature of enhanced allocations under existing scheme. For example, ministry increased the allocation of Indira Awash Yojana by 58,000 units. Given that there is always conflicting claim in allocation and disbursement by Ministry of Rural development under its various schemes, these enhanced allocations are difficult to quantify. It is difficult to make out whether these benefits did actually accrue to intended beneficiaries or not. For example, in recent years state is being deprived of even proper PMGSY funding and hence saying that there would be enhanced funding under PMGSY can not past muster in case of such National Disasters.  With exception of MORD, there has been hardly any allocation under Reconstruction & Rehabilitation plan. In contrast, Tamil Nadu got benefit of the following specific reconstruction & rehabilitation Packages:
1.      Rajiv Gandhi Rehabilitation Package amounting to Rs. 2347 Crores. This among other things covered rehabilitation for loss of fishing avenues (Rs 1000 crores), land reclamation (Rs 75 crores) and Housing reconstruction (rs. 650 Crores).
2.      Further, Central government borrowed $423 Million (rs 1852.74 crores at then exchange rate) and made it available to Tamil Nadu government to support the reconstruction of and rehabilitation activity.
Above two fundings are covered, among other things, the construction of houses numbering 1,43,000 at an average cost of Rs.1,25,000/- a piece including cost of village infrastructure. Brief details of World Bank package is as given below.
“World Bank had approved an Emergency Tsunami Reconstruction Project with a Total project cost of Rs. 1852.74 crore ($423 million) for Tamil Nadu to
a.       Provide for multi hazard resistant housing for tsunami affected people
b.       Reclaim and restore agricultural and horticultural lands
c.       Restore and strengthen fisheries infrastructure
d.       Restore and strengthen animal husbandry infrastructure
e.       Restore and strengthen the damaged public infrastructure like roads, water supply, bridges, schools, health centres, etc.
f.        Strengthen coastal social and economic infrastructure
g.       Create Green Shelter Belt
h.      Conduct scientific studies to understand coastal ecology and plan for suitable disaster management projects”
3.      Further, central government also arranged for an aid from International Fund for Agriculture Development amounting to $ 30 million (rs. 129 crores at then exchange rate) and made it available to Tamil Nadu government to support the reconstruction of and rehabilitation activity.
 
 
“International Fund of Agricultural Development support for Tsunami rehabilitation at $30 Million (rs 129 crores)
An IFAD project formulation-cum-appraisal mission visited Tamil Nadu from 4 to 21 April 2005 to plan the project and agree on modalities for its implementation with the State Government of Tamil Nadu (GOTN)
Covers 6 coastal districts of Tamil Nadu”
Going by the set benchmark, people of Kosi region should have been provided funding for removing sand from their fields and also to reclaim the same for agriculture purpose. Additionally, they should have been provided a similar package for reconstruction of the damaged houses. However, they have been denied both by the central government.
Coming to the third component, that is long term reconstruction of infrastructure in the region. This is again something where lot was expected from central government. Given that large populations were marooned by the water engulfing them from all sides with little or no connectivity, a concerted effort was expected on this front. Though during the flood, complete Kosi region was on  the verge of being completely disconnected, yet no effort has been made to connect it to state capital in a better way in the aftermath. A four lane national highway connecting state capital to this region through shortest route via Hajipur-Samstipur- Kusheswarsthan –Saharsha-Madhepura-Purniya and another bifurcation from Samastipur-Rasiyari Ghat- Supaul-Arariya- Galgaliya should have been taken up as the top priority. Yet nothing has happened on this front. Even on railway connectivity, federal government has been quite slow till now. There has been no funding even for rebuilding/repairing infrastructures swept away by the flood water. In stark contrast, there was meticulously designed package in case of Tsunami disaster for Tamil Nadu: This comprised of:
1.      A long term Tsunami Reconstruction Programme (TRP) for Rs.9870 crore was approved by the Central Government covering all states. Tamil Nadu government has submitted a memorandum of Rs.4285 crore for reconstruction and rehabilitation. After detailed discussions, Government of India approved an amount of Rs.4240 crore under the TRP. This includes provision for housing, fisheries, environmental and coastal protection, roads and bridges etc.
2.      Central government borrowed $ 100 million and received grant of another $100 million from ADB for Tsunami reconstruction. It allocated $ 143.7 million (rs 629.93 crores at then exchange rate) to Tamil Nadu government for Infrastructure development. Details of  ADB funding is as below:
“The Asian Development Bank has approved the Tsunami Emergency Assistance Project at a cost of $ 143.75 million (or Rs. 629.93 crore) for Tamil Nadu for
a.       Restoration of livelihoods
b.       Transportation such as roads and bridges, ports and harbours
c.       Rural and municipal infrastructure such as water supply and sanitation, municipal infrastructure, rural infrastructure
d.      Capacity building and implementation assistance”
 
It is quite apparent from the above comparison that People of Kosi region have been severely overlooked. They have not only been let down by federal government but also by their own representatives. It is time to make reconstruction and rehabilitation the sole issue for this coming election when Bihar goes to polls in October/November next. People’s representatives must be called to explain their role in this regard. It’s time for people from Kosi region to assert themselves. Time for redemption is now!

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BIHAR : BETRAYED BY ITS OWN LEADERS
The CM's decision to return Gujarat peoples' money is undoubtedly a clear expression of his moral and political bankruptcy. It is also an expression of his inability to lead the distressed and innocent people of Bihar.His tall claims and daily news paper ads is an example of the common saying " an empty vessel sounds much' . Now, it seems that all his vows and undertakings are nothing more than hot air. This really begs the question of whether the CM himself can really be taken seriously.Well, One really can’t understand why the NDA which is drowning from head to toe in the unforgivable sin of deceiving the populace is unwilling to come up with an answer to even the simplest KOSI question.Where the hell was the money spent ? And why was this five crore unspent ?
The NDA is also using the centre's queries about the allocated unspent funds as a pretext to commit political adultery by reneging on and retreating from erstwhile commitments to rebuid the Kosi region and the state in general.
We all know that the NDA is mostly made up of either communal , castist local goons guarded and controlled by the corrupt bureaucrats or tyrannical authoritarian chiefs that deny their own voters basic human rights and civil liberties. Hence, it would be more than naïve to expect these despotic gangs to play a truly constructive role in promoting the cause of Bihar.
ARSHAD MOHSIN