Bifurcation: no benefit to people

By Our Staff Correspondent

PATNA, NOV. 13. The division of Bihar and the creation of Jharkhand on Nov. 15 last year has brought little cheer to either of the two States and the people, while the two ruling parties have heaped political benefits on themselves.

Irrespective of the reasons forwarded for dividing Bihar, the apparent ulterior motive of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre in creating Jharkhand was to set up its own government in the new State. In the bargain, the RJD strengthened its position in the Assembly and in the present political scenario commands more than 45 per cent of the votes polled in the 2000 general elections.

That is all that has changed over the past one year. There are two State Governments now and ironically both have been functioning almost on an ad hoc basis all these months, unable to finalise the division of their cadre and assets. The worst fallout of the bifurcation is the shortage of IAS and IPS officers and technical hands in the two States, forcing them to hire more hands, consequently increasing their non-Plan expenditures alarmingly, though there has been no increase in their resources.

As a matter of fact, the experience of the first year of separation has been a saga of miseries for the two States, both suffering in isolation with little or no help from any quarters to tide over their respective agonies. The plight of the people is anybody's guess in such a situation.

The Bihar Government has hiked taxes right from liquor to medicines to offset financial losses, but things are not rosy in Jharkhand either. The Jharkhand Government learnt it the hard way - much earlier than anticipated - that it was not actually flush with funds as it had perceived while preparing a surplus budget for the current financial year. It soon went in for supplementary augmentation, hard pressed to meet even the wages bill.

The promised special economic package is unlikely to be delivered ever to Bihar. That was perhaps amply made clear by the Planning Commission team which visited the State capital the other day, stressing all through its two-day discussions project-wise consideration by the respective departments of the Central Government. To hope that the State Government would succeed in securing a special category status for the States in such circumstances appears rather naive. Indeed, the Centre has denied funds that were due for Bihar despite the fact that an elected panchayat system in now in place. The State suffers from similar stepmotherly treatment at the hands of the Centre on various other counts.

One of them, of course, is floods, a problem which is more exclusive to Bihar and not shared by Jharkhand in the real sense of the term. In the case of Jharkhand mine disasters are becoming more frequent, the unfortunate part being that most of them are related to illegal mining operations which appears to have increased sharply of late.

On the economic front, Jharkhand has not seen any improvement for all the resources present there and the change of guard. The Centre has initiated no action to revive the sick units, including the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC), nor have any investments visited the State, be it private or those of the Central Government.

The problem that the two States confront is the violence of the naxalite brand. The two States are tackling the menace separately at greater cost, adding to the burden of the Centre as well. More para- military forces are now required for deployment in the two States.

Bihar has been relatively peaceful for over a year and half now with no major carnages being inflicted by the Ranbir Sena, the private army of feudal landlords, or the splinter naxalite groups, notwithstanding the fact that they do indulge in killings.

The naxalites are basically training their guns against the police and the problem is more critical in Jarkhand, where more than 55 police personnel, including para-military forces, have been killed in less than one year.

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