Bihar is now divided, it's high celebration time in Jharkhand, there is high expectation galore among the denizens. But in truncated Bihar, people are yet to recover from the pangs of separation; every where there is gloom and despair and the question posed in every circle is how this state will work in a new situation with meager resources. Incidentally, the birth of Jharkhand is coinciding with the completion of a decade of Laloo's rule or better you can say Laloo's era. This is the period when this state is having one of the most powerful Chief Ministers after S K Sinha and a party that claims to be the protagonist of the ideology of social justice is at the helm of power. Despite all that, the ground situation of Bihar remained not even stagnant but went from bad to worse.The state has virtually became a metaphor for backwardness in the country.

In 1990s, the growth accelerated sharply in many of the states taking advantages of the policies of liberalisation but the growth in Bihar actually decelerated. The growth rate of SDP in Bihar was 2.7 percent whereas in Gujrat it was as high as 9.6 percent. The growth rate of Bihar, in other words, is also decelerating the growth rate of the country to some extent. The development of a big state like Bihar is naturally having its great impact on the overall development of the country. Laloo Yadav used to say that IT will not generate enough employment. Then why the government is not utilising its vast potential of agro based industries. It is amazing to know that more than 9 lac hectares of fertile land are permanently affected by water logging.

Today, Bihar with a per capita income of Rs 3,835 is the poorest among all major states and after division the income will go down to only 2,197. In 1887-88 the population below poverty line in the state was 52.13 percent and surprisingly increased to 54.96 percent in 1993-94.This is the only state where no. of poor has increased.This very fact speaks volumes on how our mechanism of development administration is working. There is no dearth of programmes on povery alleviation and social security and many of these programs are successful in different states. But why they miserably fail here?

After creation of Jharkhand, Bihar will face severe financial crises. The annual income of undivided Bihar is Rs 4,836 crore and its non-plan exenditure is Rs. 10,784 crore. This includes the contribution of Rs 3,707 crore from Jharkhand. After division, Bihar will lose 40 percent of the direct revenue and 90 percent non tax revenue and its deficit will go up to 2821 crore. In a changed situation, the crisis of governance in this cash starved state becomes very challenging. How this government can sustain dead defunct corporations, boards, and a large no. of Madarsa and Sanskrit schools. Due to political expediency, most of these institutions are in Bihar. The no.of Colleges and Universities are also disproportionate. Out of altogether 15 Universities 11 are in Bihar. Even to pay regular salary will be an uphill task to any government here.

The frequency of massacres in Bihar has increased in the last 10 years. In 1990s, only 93 incidents of mass killings had been reported and this year more than 86 people are already killed in different massacres. The cases for kidnapping for ransom have increased from 290 in 1993 to 436 in 1999. The ganglords and private armies have taken over the role of police and judiciary.

The BIMARU States (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and UP) which signifies a homogenous group of poor performing states, now, does not fall in one class as far as the economic performance is concerned. Barring Bihar and UP, the other two states are performing very well. Their growth rate has accelerated significantly in 1990s. In Bihar, per capita SDP growth rate is only a little over one percent less than one third of the national average.

The quality of governance is one of the most important factors deciding economic growth and development of a state. The poor governance leads to poor administration and corruption. Lack of accountability and responsiveness in state administration is clearly reflected in the execution of different programs. The very common example is large scale enlisting of non-poor in the category of poor. Poor and unplanned constructions of different irrigation projects clearly show how insensitive bureaucracy we have in this state.

The Law and Order situation is also an important aspect of governance and poor law and order situation can not stimulate any private sector to invest in the state. Kidnapping of businessmen for ransom and rangdari tax has scared the local businessmen to such an extent that they are fleeing to some other state with their capital. For economic growth and additional employment generation, state needs heavy investment in private sector.

Infrastructure:

The other bottleneck for development in the state is poor infrastructure. The per capita power consumption in north Bihar is only 22 (KWH) whereas national average is 319 (KWH). As such Bihar has to depend totally on other states for electricity. In this age, no one can think of any development without electricity. A large number of people have settled in Patna because here one can get regular electricity in many district headquarters. Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has prepared a relative infrastructure development index and in this index Bihar stands on the lowest ladder with 77.8 and that too decelerating in last couple of years.

Source: CMIE

The irony is that despite maldevelopment and ever increasing numbers of poor, the agenda of not a single political party is 'development' in Bihar. Now, after division, the grim economic picture of the state is forcing these politicians to shed their crocodile tears. There is no one to ask why the state has now become a virtually economically not viable state.

The division has not created any resentment among common masses that the state is going to face severe financial crisis. The reason is laud and clear that the state has virtually withered away. The dependence on government has decreased to minimal. The government is not reaching to common man. If the schools and Colleges are closed for months -----who bothers? If the doctors are not paid ----- who bothers? They are not visiting umpteen Primary Health Centres. People are now more dependent on the alternative systems. The crores of people in the villages are totally dependent on Jhola Chhap doctors not only because they are cheaper but because they are the only option left to them. Private schools are fast acquiring the place of government schools even in remote villages. When people in villages have acquired the sophisticated guns like AK 57 for their security why will they depend upon Bihar Police wielding Second World War rifles.

People are becoming less and less dependent on Government, being disillusioned by thoroughly corrupt bureaucracy. One has to pay Rs 500 as bribe for purchasing a government stamp paper costing Rs 10. So, the government has to face the immediate challenge whether it should be paid for its inefficiency and unresponsiveness.

If the state overcomes the problem of backwardness, the private and public investment in the economy will be stepped up and at the same time the delivery mechanism of

Government machinery will be toned up with a new working culture. At least 35 percent of the state government employees are getting salary without any work. In some cases Government is not having any work for them and in many other cases government servants are doing their private works and getting payments from the government treasury. Such examples are of many teachers, doctors, researchers and engineers who are full time working some where else lifting salary from state exchequer.

Now this is high time to tone up governance in the state otherwise it has to crumble under its own weight.