For Bihar with hope, from some Friends in Mumbai

Under the banner ‘Friends of Bihar’, the bureaucrats, police officers and industrialists met at the Police Gymkhana on Marine Lines on Saturday. They included Sulabh International chairperson Chandra Mohan, Ramanand Tiwari, secretary, Urban Development Department in the Maharashtra government, film-maker Prakash Jha, industrialist Gopalji Jha, Bihar Association president B Singh, and representatives of two NGOs, Sethu and Red Swastik Society.

On the immediate agenda was the provision of basic amenities such as sanitation, balwadis and healthcare facilities. Fund-raisers will be organised and aid, both material and monetary, channelled to the seven villages: Subahi, Hariharpur, Daulatpur, Rahimpur, Jamalpur, Mauahil and Lomar.

‘‘Caste politics has totally destroyed the state’s administration. There is so much anarchy and we are trying to ease the suffering of our compatriots. We had held some health camps earlier, where 5,000 people were operated on at Hajipura, near Patna, for free’’, says Chandra Mohan, whose ancestral home is a village near Patna.

Tiwari, who hails from Rahimpur, says: ‘‘Sometimes, when people talk about the rampant kidnappings and murders in Bihar, I don’t know what to say but it hurts. People don’t even have warm clothes, we buy 10-15 but I cannot give in the hundreds. That’s where our project comes in.’’

Prakash Jha is equally vocal. ‘‘My cynicism about the way things are in Bihar stems from personal experience, especially during my stay there in 1988-93. There has been a systematic annhilation of the economic and social system, which has resulted in the birth of a chaotic society. No society can progress without generation of wealth. We have never joined the national movement, not added a single foot to the national highways in 60 years.”

The Red Swastik Society has offered to donate two containers of warm clothes and sanitary napkins for the villagers. Deputy Commissioner of Police, T S Bhal, a representative of the NGO, says a pharmaceutical company has volunteered to help.

They know that there’s never enough that can be done for Bihar.

‘‘Hardly a day passes when we don’t read newspaper reports of murders and kidnappings. A friend of mine was one such victim. We are in a position to bring about some change but don’t know how to go about it,’’ says R A Rajeev, Joint Municipal Commissioner with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

He can take heart. The project is just a start.