Nitish Kumar used his tenure's last report card on Monday to dole out bonanzas to employees and pit his "development model" as the main plank against the Narendra Modi-led BJP's, rejecting the latter's reliance on corporate investment.
Apparently mindful of how contract teachers seeking regularisation of service derailed his campaign during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Nitish announced regular pay scale for contract teachers and librarians of primary, middle and high schools with retrospective effect from July 1, 2015.
He raised the honorarium of agriculture advisers and tola (hamlet) volunteers by Rs 2,000-3,000 per head respectively, raised doctors' retirement age from 65 to 67 years and announced compensation worth Rs 4 lakh to dependents of contract employees from village to state level in the event of their death while serving.
Contract teachers, Tola servants, teaching volunteers, Anganwadi workers, cooks in schools, contract engineers and doctors will benefit from this dole. Journalists too will be entitled to monthly pension on superannuating, with effect from August 1, 2015.
A financial expert associated with policy-making said: "If the government decides a pay-scale of Rs 19,000-20,000 a month for just contract teachers, it would impose a financial burden of Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 crore on the state exchequer. If it decides to pay teachers Rs 30,000 or above, the burden might rise to around Rs 7,000 crore." Under cover of anonymity, he said: "These are instances of competitive populism that might drive the state into a financial mess. But this is what governments - right from the Centre to states - do in their overdrive to outscore their rivals and come to power". He estimated that after Monday's announcement the number of employees on government pay roll would go up to eight to nine lakh.
While highlighting achievements during his nearly 10 years in office, Nitish showcased his government's feats on all human development indices from education, health, poverty-alleviation to electric power and overall infrastructure building.
The chief minister described the phenomenal rise in number of school-going girls as his "biggest achievement".
"Only 100,917 girl children were enrolled in schools when we took over reins of the state. There are now over 8.15 lakh girl and 8.28 lakh boy students in just Class IX across state schools - an indicator to the biggest social revolution in the making," Nitish said, asserting: "Our move to launch the cycle and uniform scheme and scholarship to poor children has ushered in such a revolution. Many global institutions are studying and adopting our model".
He further said: "The state has registered double-digit growth at an average of over 10 per cent in the past 10 years. Against 39 patients per month, our public health centres are receiving 11,000 patients each month. Barely 1.72 per cent children are out of school. Polio stands totally eradicated from the state. Our per capita income has risen from Rs 7,914 to Rs 36,143. Per capital electric power consumption has risen from 70 to 203 units, showing marked improvement in people's life standards. Be it roads or bridges or agriculture products, we have set new records. Bihar is at the top in production of honey. Given our roadmap, Bihar, which depends sharply on Andhra Pradesh for fishes and hatchery products, will become its exporter in times to come," Nitish said. He also asserted: "This is our model of development. Our model of development primarily means human development - in a nutshell growth with justice."
In a way, Nitish rejected Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "model of development", which relies more on corporate investment. "You (read Modi) cannot see our way of development for you have defects in your eyes. Get your eyes corrected to see how Bihar has progressed with its saga of growth with justice in the last 10 years," Nitish said, adding jokingly: "I have got my eyes operated upon. Aap ko doctor bata sakta hoon (I can suggest the doctor's name to you."
The chief minister also announced introduction of public grievances redressal bill in the coming monsoon session of the state legislature to guarantee people's legal right to redress their grievances.
Among other major announcements he made were building of a super specialty hospital at Kankerabagh in Patna and takeover of the medical college and hospital being built by Employees State Insurance (ESI) at Bihta.
"So far we have made quantitative progress in health and education sectors. We will concentrate on qualitative improvement in all sectors - health, education and overall infrastructure sector in the days to follow," Nitish said, reiterating: "Rule of law and growth with justice are the guiding principles of our government. We will adhere to these principles in future too."
The Bihar Health Services Association praised the decision to raise retirement age of doctors from 65 to 67 years. Association general secretary Ranjit Kumar, however, said it would be wise on the state government's part if it would also think about recruiting new doctors at the government health facilities to fill up vacancies apart from giving benefits of dynamic assured career progression schemes to doctors, a long-pending demand by the association.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHUCHISMITA CHAKRABORTY
