Nitish Kumar:Why I don't like him anymore (continued)
INDRA R SHARMA
I have been reading that 'Babur’s grandson, Akbar, planted the “Lakh Bagh”, a mango orchard containing one lakh trees in Darbhanga, Bihar.' What happened to that? Shershah and his sons built a number monuments that could have attracted thousands of tourists. Why didn't it happen? A number of young technocrats open enterprises in Bihar, but none could scale it up to be a known entity in India. Why couldn't Bihar create entrepreneurs in a large number? What is that for which I must like Nitish Kumar? Here is another listing of reasons that I don't like Nitish Kumar who could have performed much more when he had full opportunity. But then he decide to break the very well performing alliance just for his personal ego, as he could not become the prime ministerial candidate of Election 2014. Here are some more:
@ Nitish Kumar humiliated Modi without any reason except for just pleasing the minority. And his lust for power has taken him to Sonia Gandhi and Lalu who have just one objective- to keep the power in the family. Even today, many doubt if Lalu will provide unconditional support to Nitish, as it is very clear from his utterances such as "When the BJP left him, he came to me. I made him CM. Humne inko bana diya."
@ Nitish Kumar doesn't know how to dream and think big for transforming Bihar into a developed and respected state. Perhaps he lacks that capability. Nitish Kumar has wasted his 10 years of rule and could not implement any worth mentionable project such as Mayawati's Yamuna Expressway or Akhilesh Yadav's Agra-Lucknow Expressway that will also be extended up to Ballia. Nitish Kumar could have connected the East-West corridor to Delhi-Kolkata GQ with a 4- or 6- lane highway. And then I could hardly find the promised industrial projects listed in large number on Bihar website in the ten year run of Nitish Kumar getting implemented.
@ Nitish Kumar though a product of JP movement had hardly the desired respect for JP Narayan or for that matter Dr. Rajendra Prasad. He hardly did anything noticeable to perpetuate their memories, as the caste of these great men does not own a great vote bank.
@ Nitish Kumar could not take any reformative step and corrective measure. Even today Bihar loses a whopping 54 per cent electricity that is either "stolen or lost".
@ In Bihar, the state government records show that there are about 40 million people in the age group of 15 to 29 years of which less than 1 per cent had some sort of formal vocational training. Bihar exports its greatest human resources to all parts of India from Kashmir to Kerala to just humiliating menial jobs there as he can't provide even that in Bihar.
@ Bihar can easily be the leader of the second green revolution of India. Nitish has not done anything significant to encourage the farmers to diversify in high-earning agriculture produces such as vegetables and fruits from its most fertile land or poultry and animal husbandry as resorted to by many states. Its productivity of agriculture produce is still lower, though Nitish Kumar kept on talking about the record per hectare production of paddy and potato. Nitish hardly took up any great irrigation project.
@Bihar is the third most illiterate state with 43.85 per cent population falling in that category. The quality of education at primary and secondary level in rural Bihar is just dismal. The kids come to the schools to have only their midday meal. Adult education has just vanished. Does it not cast a shadow on the effectiveness of the initiatives of chief minister Nitish Kumar in promoting education in rural areas?
@ The presence of non-agricultural enterprises in rural households is about 1.67%, minimal in Bihar.The meagre size of the registered non agriculture sector in rural areas indicates the inability to tap into the non-agriculture potential of the rural sector. Only with the large number of migrants poring money in Bihar, 6.9% of the households has members earning more than Rs 10,000 a month in Bihar.
@ Why does Bihar not appear with significant progress in e-governance as attained by other states? And many good things started get mired because the lack of maintenance, such as free Wi-Fi zone, multi-level parking, ghat beautification or the so talked of road along the Ganga.
@ The election campaign will be around the development one of Nitish Brand and the other will be the development associated with Modi. How will Lalu clan fit in the mission? Nitish will have to take all three- two sons and one daughter in his cabinet and allocate to them whatever portfolio they will seek, if they win.
@ Nitish Kumar can become tech savvy for winning election, but he hardly did anything to connect the schools digitally. Government teachers in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttarakhand are using WhatsApp groups to exchange knowledge and ideas with each other. The Karnataka Open Educational Resources platform is enabling teachers to create digital content. Why can't the same is possible in Bihar? Nitish Kumar did hardly invest in training for teachers and school leaders in the effective use of technology.
As I understand Nitish Kumar has got the assistance of a team of 300 technocrats from IITs and IIMs for his election campaign. I wish after the election Nitish deploys them to 300 Panchayats to create action plans for improving the economic condition of the poor there and move ahead accordingly.
@ Nitish Kumar would have at least learnt from his new friend Kejriwal and done something significant in rural health care. Is it not a necessity to have a good dispensary with an ambulance in each panchayat with remote villages? I keep myself in contact with at least some villages in Bihar. When in those villages, I have discussed the necessity of a dispensary too. In none of those villages there is anything related to the public health in last so many years.
@ Nitish Kumar could hardly change the poor situation of open defecation in the state that causes many problems.Open defecation raises the risk of low birth weight, pre-term births and spontaneous abortions.Irrespective of household income levels, pregnant women without access to toilets at home were twice more likely to experience adverse pregnancy outcomes - pre-term births, low birth weight babies, foetal loss, or stillbirths - than women who had toilets.
I wish those working under Prashant Kishor take care of these in the future plan for Nitish.
