Even before it really got going, a new project in Bihar has so excited bureaucrats that they want the same programme implemented in other states affected by the Naxalite menace. This, enraptured officials say, is one case of Bihar showing the way.Bihar Governor Buta Singh has got the Rashtriya Samaj Vikas Yojana going in Bihar, where recruitment of teachers at the primary education level had never taken off because of a court case. Buta Singh, however, has now devised a plan to build secondary schools in 17 Naxalite-hit districts of the state. The plan in an earlier avatar was devised in North Block, in consultations between HRD and Home Ministry officials. The contention was that if secondary education could be strengthened in Naxalite-affected districts, it would be possible to prevent adolescents who often go astray, from ending up in the arms-training camps of Naxalites.Higher Education Secretary, B.S. Baswan is learned to have recently visited Bihar, specifically the four districts where this project could now be taken up seriously with funding from the Social Justice Ministry’s Rastriya Samaj Vikas Yojana. Baswan toured the four districts of Biharsharief, Nawadah, Gaya and Jehanabad and felt that the project—still in its early stages—showed signs of promise.Since then, the HRD Ministry has spoken to Uttar Pradesh to see if the same project could be implemented in the Naxalite corridor districts of the state. A similar scenario is being looked at in West Bengal, where Naxalites bear some influence in West Midnapore and Bankura and Purulia districts. The issue may also be taken up with the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. In Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had started residential schools for secondary students, but it did not do much to help solve the PWG problem—both in Rayalseema and Telangana.
