Chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi at the Mission Manav Vikas meeting in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Nov. 22: The state government, in its efforts to develop human resource, has constituted a mission named Manav Vikas. Chief minister Nitish Kumar today chaired the first meeting of the mission.

It will function as a nodal body, co-ordinating among various departments, to develop human resource in the state and expedite projects. The human resource development (HRD), health, minority affairs, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe, social welfare, labour resources and culture and youth affairs departments will be part of the mission.

HRD department principal secretary Anjani Kumar Singh at a news meet today said: “Thirteen departments under Mission Manav Vikas will work in co-ordination to achieve goals which are directly linked with human resource.

“These departments will also work to achieve the goals of sushasan.”

Amarjit Sinha, principal secretary, health department, said: “Chief minister Nitish Kumar has directed that child mortality rate, fertility rate, maternal mortality rate, immunisation coverage, student-teacher ratio, literacy rate, students dropout rate in the state must be better than the national average.”

Sources said the mission had been developed because it is difficult for the departments to work on different projects in isolation.

The HRD department, along with health department, has already undertaken a large school-based de-worming programme.

Under the programme, implemented between February and April this year, 17 million children in Bihar were treated for de-worming.

Sources said the chief minister wants better co-ordination among the departments to ensure all-round development.

The next meeting of Mission Manav Vikas is scheduled on December 20. The chief minister will oversee the progress under the mission.