Jamshedpur, Jan. 5: I think, the idea behind separating Jharkhand from Bihar was quite justified. However, one would ask, was it required?

I would say, the two regions had to be bifurcated as the requirements in terms of civilisation and human needs were completely different. So the separation was needed for individual development.

Since the two regions had separate resources, it was thought that they couldn’t be developed with one single plan. But there was one stumbling block — political ambition.

Under unified Bihar, it was noticed that the politicians from Bihar ruled the domain, while Jharkhand leaders remained marginalised. They did not have much say and so there was only one way out — bifurcation. It was hoped that after bifurcation, both the states would develop, individually.

However, Jharkhand and Bihar have not been able to fulfil the expectations. Six years down the line, people of both the states are yet to see the fruits of development.

It’s not that Bihar completely lacked industrialisation in the earlier days. In 1947, there were a total of 56 sugar mills in the country, out of which 36 were from Bihar. Then there was the famous “Morton” chocolate factory, besides many small and big industries. On the other hand, Jharkhand is rich with mineral resources. But the unified Bihar never tried to develop the resources, though it used to earn more than Rs 900 crore from royalty. There are plenty of schemes, especially for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe members, which could never be implemented.

In Jharkhand, people are not benefiting from bifurcation. The state does not have a planning board, which could have designed the various long-term schemes and projects for the state. The state could have been developed as a bio-diversity state since there is plenty of hope in the fields of agro-industries and horticulture.

There should have been a bio-diversity board as well, given the rich bio-diversity sector. Jharkhand would have needed a development module so that the living standard of the people could be improved. But nothing of this sort happened.

There is nothing like vision, which could be documented. No mapping of resources was ever done by the government here.

The most unfortunate thing is that funds often go unutilised. There is a need to remove the roadblocks in order to realise the dreams with which Jharkhand was created.

Jharkhand has a potential to become an example in good governance in the country. There is a need to streamline and channelise the forces to achieve the goal.

(As told to Navtan Kumar)