Chief minister Nitish Kumar presents the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Education Award 2011 to Pushpa Kumari, a teacher from Nawada, for her contribution to the field of education at Gandhi Maidan on Sunday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Nov. 13: Don’t compare Bihar with Gujarat: the message is loud and clear from chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Nitish, while speaking on the concluding day of the three-day National Education Day function here, said: “There is no comparison between Bihar and Gujarat in terms of development. While Gujarat has been a developed state since long, Bihar is moving towards development.”

Sharing his experiences in the recently concluded first phase of Seva Yatra in West Champaran, the chief minister said during the yatra, a journalist from New Delhi asked him how he compared Bihar’s development with that of Gujarat. Nitish replied: “There can be no comparison… While Gujarat gives a message of wealth and prosperity, Bihar gives the message of knowledge.”

Nitish urged the students and teachers, who had gathered from various parts of state, to strive for development of the state, as “Bihar’s biggest resource is its manpower”. Nitish said: “No society can develop unless its human resource is developed and the best way to develop human resource is through education.”

The chief minister asked the students to dream bigger as success can’t be achieved if there is no dream. He asked the students to develop a scientific temperament so that they can excel in different fields.

The National Education Day function, organised by state human resource development (HRD) department, started on November 11, the birth anniversary of the country’s first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

Bihar is the first state in the country to observe Maulana Azad’s birthday as “Education Day”.

Earlier, speaking at the function, state HRD minister P.K. Shahi said: “In the past five years, various initiatives have been taken by the state government in the field of education.” Shahi thanked the chief minister for his special focus on education and assured him that the HRD department will work hard to turn to reality Nitish’s vision of quality education. Shahi said: “The state government and the department’s focus is towards quality education.”

The chief minister earlier felicitated 13 persons with Bihar Gaurav Samman. Siddharth Bhardwaj, Ravi Shankar Kumar and Saket Kumar and others received Rs 1 lakh each as part of the award.