Bihari Diaspora urged to invest in Bihar
CHENNAI: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Thursday urged the Bihari Diaspora to invest in the State for their own welfare and the welfare of their brethren.
Addressing the gathering after launching the Chennai chapter of Bihar Foundation here, he claimed that Bihar had come a long way from being a State of anarchy. He said in the past three years, the State had made great strides in development.
For the past 20 to 35 years Bihar was in a state of lawlessness and corruption ruled the roost, he said. “The Niteesh Kumar government has succeed in establishing law and order in the State,” he added.
He said that other developed States in the country were seen following the Bihar model of development, in matters like providing 50 per cent reservation for women and creation of a Special Auxiliary Force and appointing retired army personnel to maintain law and order.
“The level of corruption has come down, as the government has appointed retired CBI personnel to man the vigilance department and strict actions are taken against erring officials,” he said.
He said that these measures were part of the efforts taken to change the image of Bihar, from that of anarchy to a pro-development and investment-friendly State.
With the creation of Jarkhand, which broke off from Bihar, the mines, beautiful and rich forests, premier educational institutions, hospitals and other infrastructure went to the newly formed State. “Though we have lost all these, the people of Bihar are its greatest resource. Their brains can create wonders. Bihar will definitely come up as a strong and developed State,” he said, and urged non-resident Biharis and NRI Bihari’s to contribute towards the State’s development.
He also said that the government has been monitoring the movement of migrant Bihari labourers to other States, and has come up with a Migrant Labour Accident Scheme, under which an amount of Rs 1 lakh would be given to any labourer who meets with an accident or dies at the place of his or her work.
AK Sinha, principal secretary, Industries; Shobakanth Das, Bihar Association chairman, Jithendra Srivatsava, CEO, Bihar Foundation and Rajiv Ranjan, secretary, Commercial Taxes and Registration, Government of Tamil Nadu were present.