When renowned Hindi writer Phanishwar Nath Renu wrote ofPurnea in Bihar in the 1950s in ‘Maila Aanchal’, his protagonist, a doctor whochose to stay in the village observed from the closest quarters social backwardness,illiteracy, grief, ignorance, superstitions, social exploitation and struggleand diseases like malaria and black fever (both killed many in those times).
Today, around 60 years later, many of those vignettes inMaila Aanchal are still the truth of Purnea. A recent survey by Uday Singh, theBJP Lok Sabha member from the district reveals an acute deficit of governancein the region. The report shows that most of the government schemes likeintegrated child development scheme, sarva shiksha abhiyan, public healthsystem, support programmes for agriculture, schemes for mahadalits andminorities as well as the flagship welfare scheme for rural areas theemployment guarantee scheme are not reaching the target populations. “Thegovernment social welfare schemes have failed to deliver in the district,” saysSingh. Also an industrialist, the MP funded the survey which had a sample of2,10,000 out of 3,50,000 households in the district. Over 1,500 surveyorsworked with a set of 150 questions which have comprehensively drawn a pictureof the state of governance in the district.
Some of the figures are actually damning of the claims ofgood governance in the state under the present Nitish Kumar-led BJP-Janata Dal(United) ruling alliance. According to the report, 60 percent of children inthe age group 3-6 years have not been enrolled in the aanganwadi/ICDS programmefor availing supplementary nutrition, pre-school education. An overwhelming 50percent of the respondents felt that the condition of local health centres wasreally bad. But the biggest stunner is that only 13 percent of the respondents,in a region where 80 percent of the population is dependent on income fromcasual labour, found work under MNREGS. Only five percent of the mahadalit andminority communities’ respondents had ever received any support from the stategovernment schemes, claims the report. In the energy deficient district, 39percent of the respondents marked electricity as a greater need than roads andinfrastructure.
Singh says that the report, titled ‘Systemic IssuesUnderlying the Governance Deficit’, exposes chief minister Nitish Kumar’s tallclaims of a turnaround in the fortunes of the state. He says even after eightyears of Kumar being at the helm, things have remained the same as before.However, the report itself treads the fault line in the BJP-JD (U) alliancevery carefully. “… Our NDA government in Bihar has delivered far bettergovernance than that of its predecessor… But as this report unambiguouslyhighlights, the ground realities are very different and indeed worrisome,” itis noted in the report. Interestingly, Uday Singh’s brother N.K. Singh, formerunion revenue secretary, is a Rajya Sabha member from JD (U) and a prominentaide of Nitish Kumar in New Delhi. His mother Madhuri Singh represented Purneain the Lok Sabha as a Congress leader.
Singh, termed himself a “helpless MP” who can only givesuggestions to the local administration. But he stressed that the intent behindthe survey was to bring governance and accountability in his constituency. “Ihope this rings an alarm bell and force future course correction,” he added.
