The site for filmmaker Prakash Jha’s proposed sugar factory at Gurwalia in West Champaran. Picture by Ajit Kumar Verma

Jagannathpur/Gurwalia (West Champaran), Nov. 10: Nitish Kumar made a sweet beginning to his Seva Yatra yesterday, but villagers at Gurwalia are sour at the neglect they have endured for the past four years.

The chief minister had begun his statewide odyssey to review his government’s functioning by showcasing a sugar factory built by the public sector HPCL at Lauria on Wednesday. Today, Nitish, along with his chief secretary and police chief, visited a school at the remote Jagannathpur village on the India-Nepal border.

Barely 30km away from where the state’s high and mighty camped today lies Gurwalia, which had once dreamt of being the launchpad for the chief minister’s industrial revival. It was here that the Rs 350-crore Maurya Sugar factory, owned by filmmaker Prakash Jha, was to have come up on 300 acres of land.

Amid great fanfare, Nitish, along with his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, had laid the foundation stone of the proposed sugar factory on April 28, 2007. The factory was to have come up by 2010.

But four years down the line, the factory’s billboard is surrounded by thick and tall shrubs. The entire plot that the filmmaker had acquired at his native village has been covered by wild bushes and shrubs.

“We are waiting for the chief minister to come and explain why he has not helped Prakash Jha in the venture. After all, we have given our land in the hope that the sugar factory will come up, adding to the prosperity and development of our area,” said Akhilesh Tiwary, a Turahapatti resident whose family had sold off 2.5 acres of land for the project.

But Nitish, who showcased HPCL’s Rs 360-crore factory at Lauria as the model of industrialisation he has promised to usher in, did not even make a mention of the Gurwalia project as he held darbar at Jagannathpur.

The fate of the sugar project was sealed once Jha’s foray into politics ended in disaster. The filmmaker, who contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Bettiah as a Lok Janshakti Party candidate, lost to the JD(U)-supported BJP nominee and alienated himself from the political bosses in Patna.

Residents said the management of two other sugar factories at Ram Nagar and Chanpatia engaged Jha in lawsuits. This played a major role in the project coming undone.

The rival mills objected to Jha getting the sanction of over 300 acres of cane farms in the catchment area of his factory. They filed a lawsuit in Patna High Court on the ground that a law of 1927 prohibited a company from acquiring cane farms before it was established. The court directed Jha to get the law amended by the Bihar government which he did not. While Jha’s case was dragging in the courts, the banks cancelled a loan worth Rs 160 crore to the proposed factory, hastening its decline.

Though Jha could not be contacted, his company’s legal adviser, V.K. Tiwary, said: “Our petition to amend the law is pending with the state government in spite of our 20 reminders. We hope that the government will listen to us and the banks will come forward to help us again.”

Tiwary said the filmmaker had decided to set up small units — a small sugar plant, an organic fertiliser company, a cold storage, a school and a plant to produce feed and fodder for cattle — on the land. “He (Jha) has already initiated the process to set up an alternative business here,” Tiwary said.

However, The Telegraph team could not see any activity on the ground when they visited the site today.

Away in Jagannathpur, Nitish was busy inspecting the midday meal served and other activities in the school. “Besides studying, you must be robust and learn judo and karate,” the chief minister told the girl students. He enquired if they were getting bicycles, uniforms and books on time. The students were served rice and vegetables of cauliflower and gram. “We are very happy today with CM uncle’s presence…we got a good meal,” giggled one of the girls.