PATNA: Bihar is facing an economic crisis, largely attributed to the pre-poll sops announced by the state government. The state government is unable to pay salaries to lakhs of its employees, especially four lakh teachers, forcing the Bihar Human Rights Commission (BHRC) to issue suo motu notices to government officers. University teachers have also been denied salaries for the last couple of months.
Last week, 60 Dalit students from East Champaran and West Champaran districts studying at Rajdhani Engineering College in Bhubaneswar threatened mass suicide after they were expelled from the institute due to non-payment of their stipend for over a year and a half by the state government.
“The financial crisis has set in. The state government needs Rs 4,000 crore to pay enhanced salaries to employees. With the increased honorarium and salaries of policemen, tola sevaks, talimi markaz and anganwadi sevikas, the amount is Rs 6,000 crore,” said BJP leader and former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi. Bihar gets huge financial support under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) from the Central government. The total annual budget for SSA for Bihar is Rs 7,300 crore, of which around Rs 4,800 crore is spent on teachers’ salaries. The Central and state governments share on SSA expenditure is 60:40.
“Eyeing the Assembly elections, the state government announced a hike in salaries for contractual teachers, and now they are expecting the Centre to meet the expenditure,” Modi said. Nitish will also implement his Seven Commitments at a cost of Rs 2.70 lakh crore over the next five years, or Rs 55,000 crore per annum. Work has started on a Rs 5,000 crore mega-bridge across the Ganga to connect Patna and Raghopur in Vaishali district, the constituency of Deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav. Asian Development Bank has loaned Rs 3,000 crore for it.
A major worry is that from April 1, Bihar will ban alcohol, which garners Rs 4,000 via tax.
“There is nothing to worry as our CM has planned to meet any resource gap. ,” said JD(U) leader and spokesperson Neeraj Kumar. Nitish has asked Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to release the remaining Rs 8,200 crore committed as part of the Backward Regions Grant Fund under the 12th Five Year Plan.