In a state of fear

Increasing crime rate, lack of development and political indifference prove to be the bane of Bihar, one of the most backward States in the country.

in Patna

THE law and order situation in Bihar continues to be a matter of concern. Since 1991, as many as 35 doctors and 27 engineers have been kidnapped for not paying extortion money. Five doctors were killed in the past few months alone. Several traders, businessmen and other professionals were killed for not paying extortion money or were kidnapped and released after they paid up. Besides, there have been many other cases of murders and robberies.

Indications are that as the Assembly elections approach (due early 2005) things could get worse. "I am afraid things are likely to turn from bad to worse. Kidnapping for ransom, bank dacoities and jail breaks are likely to increase in frequency because people need money and muscle power to fight the elections," said Narayan Mishra, the State's Director General of Police. Although he says that the police are alert and would try to check the increase in crime, evidence belies his claims.

On November 12, a young doctor, N.K. Agrawal, was gunned down by criminals in full view of several patients inside his nursing home in the heart of Patna. Three days earlier he had informed the police about receiving a telephone call demanding money. The killers walked into the nursing home, shot at him and left, not even bothering to run. The police, to date, remain clueless about the mastermind of the killing, though a number of suspects have been arrested.

Ironically, even as doctors protesting against the killing paralysed medical services across the State and the Bihar chapter of the Indian Medical Association held protest dharnas and meetings, criminals called up more than a dozen senior doctors in Patna and threatened them either to pay or to meet the same fate as Dr. Agrawal. Meanwhile, over a hundred patients lost their lives for lack of medical attention.

On October 28, Dr. Nagendra Prasad was kidnapped from Hajipur district. His whereabouts were not known until, owing to the doctors' strike, the police managed to pressure the criminals to release him (see interview). Soon afterwards, two senior officers of the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC), T. Mandal, General Manager, and K.K. Singh, Chief Engineer, were kidnapped. They still remain untraced. Six special police teams are trying to trace the missing engineers. "We are still groping in the dark about them," said the DGP.

Narayan Mishra said that such incidents were a consequence of "people's nil resistance to petty crime". He said: "People have to rise to the occasion. It is impossible for the police physically to prevent crime from taking place." The DGP, who assumed charge seven months ago, admitted that "slackness in action" in the past could have emboldened criminals further. He claimed: "I will not spare any criminal no matter who he is or what political contacts he has."

According to the DGP, political leaderships of all hues are to be blamed for the rising crime graph and elections tend to create "upheavals" on the law and order front. About the sudden spurt in criminal activity in the recent past, he said: "There has to be a political design. Someone wants to send a message across to the people that no one is safe in this State."

Narayan Mishra said that Dr. Agrawal's killing could have been a message to the people at large. The intention could have been to create terror in the minds of the people and prove that the law and order machinery had completely broken down. "I have a lurking suspicion that there is a political design here to defame the government," he said.

The Opposition parties, however, blame the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) for the law and order situation. Ravi Shankar Prasad, former Union Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Bihar, said: "Political patronage to criminals is responsible for the poor law and order situation in Bihar. It is not only patronage but active collusion with criminals that has brought about this state of affairs." According to Prasad, if the police were given a free hand, criminals would not have been able to operate with such impunity. He asked how a police force that had so effectively controlled communal riots, as claimed by RJD president and Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, could fail to tackle petty crimes. He blamed the RJD government for the "total collapse of governance" in Bihar and felt only a change of government could improve matters.

But this is easier said than done and the Opposition parties realise it. It is difficult to break the formidable social alliance of Muslims and Yadavs, which has played a major role in re-electing repeatedly the RJD to run the State government.

"Those who are serious about changing the profile of Bihar have to accept the hard reality that it cannot be done unless all of us come together," said Prasad. To achieve that end, he said, the BJP was willing to make "any compromise, even conceding the chief ministership to Ram Vilas Paswan, if that is his precondition for unity of all anti-Laloo forces in Bihar". Although the Opposition Janata Dal (United) has been trying to win over the Paswan-led Lok Janshakthi Party (LJP) to the anti-Laloo Prasad Yadav plank, Paswan has so far not responded favourably.

Laloo Prasad Yadav, however, dismisses all allegations of breakdown of law and order as a part of a "political conspiracy to defame the government". He described efforts to forge a united front against the RJD as "desperate efforts of desperate people" which would yield no results.

THE worsening law and order situation has to be seen in the context of the State's poor development record. Bihar has regularly failed to utilise the funds earmarked for development in successive Five-Year plans. Of a cumulative approved Plan outlay of Rs.15,411.16 crores in the Ninth Plan, the State failed to spend Rs.5,489.78 crores. In the Tenth Plan, against an outlay of Rs.2,964 crores in the first year (2002-03), the State spent only Rs.2,227 crores.

In the area of rural development, during the period 1997-2002, the State lost Rs.1,048.64 crores out of a total Central allocation of Rs.4,647.97 crores owing to inadequate utilisation. The fund was meant for various poverty alleviation programmes such as the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) and the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY). Similar is the case with funds allocated under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, a Central government project for rural infrastructure development. Against an allocation of Rs.149.90 crores in 2000-01, Bihar spent only Rs.81.27 crores and completed only 62 out of the planned 298 road development projects. For 2001-02 and 2002-03, against the cleared amount of Rs.302.98 crores, Rs.150 crores was released and only Rs.43.37 crores was spent. For 2003-04, no proposal was sent and no amount released.

Bihar has the lowest literacy and female literacy rates in the country, 47.53 per cent and 33.57 per cent respectively. Under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan scheme, designed to provide elementary education to all children in the age group of 6-14, out of an approved plan of Rs.764.7 crores for 2003-04 the expenditure until December 2003 was Rs.166 crores.

The percentage of children in the age group of 12-23 months who have been fully vaccinated remains the lowest in the country at 10.6 per cent, which is even lower than the percentage of fully vaccinated children in 1992-93. Floods remain the bane of Bihar and controlling them has been one of the most important developmental priorities of the State government. Against the target of constructing 52.74 km of flood embankment during the Ninth Five-Year Plan, the actual progress was nil. During 2002-03, the State government set a target of constructing 36 km of embankment in the most vulnerable areas, but the actual progress has been nil.

No wonder Bihar has remained one of the poorest States in the country. Bihar's per capita income grew by only 1.3 per cent in the period 1993-94 to 2001-02, from Rs.3,037 to Rs.3,397. The national average for the same period was Rs.7,690 and Rs.10,754 respectively, an increase of 4.2 per cent.