Patna, July 12: The gap between the envisioned eight per cent growth rate for India by 2020 and the negligible pace of development in Bihar cannot be bridged unless the backward state grows at the rate of 15 per cent for the next 16 years.

The annual investment — in the public as well as the private sector — required for achieving this objective would be in the vicinity of Rs 38,500 crore. In this context, the so-called Rs 3,225 crore package announced in the budget is a “cruel joke” on Bihar.

That is, if it is assumed that the assistance was “exclusively” for Bihar, a claim over which a controversy is raging. The government has refrained from clarifying the position while Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav believes that a “special package” was indeed announced and more “instalments” are in the offing.

Senior economist Shaibal Gupta, who is associated with the Asian Development Research Institute, made this contention at a seminar, “Bihar: Challenged of Development”, organised by a local daily here today.

Gupta said after Independence, the Centre’s freight equalisation policy dealt a body blow to unified Bihar’s case of development. “Along with this came the lowest plan and non-plan investments in the state. Now, international factors determined by the WTO regime have become important because Bihar’s development depends mainly on agriculture. Quantitative restrictions need to be imposed to save the farmer of Bihar from devastation and agriculture needs to be protected from dumping,” he added.

Speakers at the seminar strongly felt that the development of a “regional identity” derived from

“Bihari sub-nationalism” needs to be developed to fight for the state’s cause at the national level. “People of Bihar today have dual identities — one derived from caste and the other based in nation. A sense of belongingness and ownership must be developed if Bihar has to witness change,” a speaker said.

The constant “flight of merit” due to the poor education facilities in the state was identified as a significant factor for the state’s underdevelopment.

“A parallel system of education run by private schools and coaching institutes is functioning in Bihar. It is necessary to filter out students at the relevant levels to put their energies to more productive use. The government must function beyond providing funds to educational institutions run by it,” said Imtiaz Ahmed, director of Khuda Baksh Library.

BJP legislator Navin Kishore Sinha said while the percentage of people living below the poverty line has come down from 36 in 1991 to 26 in 2001, it has gone up from 40.8 to 42.8 in the case of Bihar.

“Poverty, absolute as well as proportional, has increased in Bihar. Most of the development schemes have flopped. Bihar definitely needs a package but a mechanism and work culture for putting the money to use has to be developed,” he argued.

Senior CPI leader Shatrughan Prasad said the biggest challenge before the state was to counter the supremacy of criminal-turned-politicians in public life and decision-making.