Blueprint for the new Bihar government

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: To continue from yesterday’s column on the challenge Bihar poses for policymakers beyond mere infrastructure, the state has failed in addressing its major development imperatives. This represents an absence of a credible developmental strategy, coupled with poor governance quality. The gap between policy and implementation, even when good policies were enacted, is not new.

Land reform is an early example. Bihar was the first state in independent India to legislate on land reform. Its implementation, including conferring tenancy rights to tillers, ownership rights to share croppers, and implementation of land ceilings, was and is disappointing. Bihar never proceeded to any meaningful implementation due to a combination of inadequate political will and the enormous clout of the rich landed class: the Bihar Abolition of Zamindari Act of 1948 was challenged in court and did not proceed. It was later replaced by the Bihar Land Reforms Act of 1950, but still faced complex legal obstacles, with tardy implementation.

This inaction on land reform limited the benefits of the Green Revolution. The new technologies, which brought significant changes in farm incomes and the agriculture sector, did not reach in Bihar and land outlays and agricultural productivity stagnated. Ironically, Bihar is one of the states that could have most substantially and sustainably benefited from the Green Revolution, given its hydrological resources.

Successive governments have failed to improve governance quality. The decline in recent years has been more perceptible. A redressal would need to concentrate on seven critical components. First, de-politicisation. Almost every activity in the state is viewed in terms of a caste or communal divide; vote politics overshadows sensible economics. This needs a thaw and at least for the next five years, a shift from focus from politics to economics. The depoliticisation includes civil service reforms, including improvement in the quality of the public delivery system, security of tenure, merit-based placements and reviving the confidence of field organisations, particularly in roads and irrigation, which can significantly improve both efficiency and quality of projects.

Second, imp-roving the overall security environment by better guarantees on security of life and property. Creating an environment which can reverse the haemorrhaging of capital and managerial outflows and improving the climate for gainful economic activity is critical.