This Week Bihar: For schoolchildren,again

Rs 91crore-per-year project that,Cabinet Secretary Ravikant said,will be totally funded by the state. Each child will get Rs 250 annually to buy a uniform. The scheme comes close to the state government announcing a Nayi Peedhi Swasthya Guarantee Scheme covering 3.4 crore children aged under 14. The Chief Minister had flaunted his bicycle and uniform schemes on his development plank for the 2010 Assembly elections,which gave the NDA a five-sixths majority.

Duplex bungalows

Decks have been cleared for the construction of duplex bungalows for Bihar’s 318 legislators — 243 MLAs and 75 MLCs in a bicameral house. The government has cleared Rs 307 crore for construction under the Model Legislator Residential Building Project. As of now,only ministers are allotted bungalows while legislators are given MLA flats along BC Patel Path and Daroga Rai Path near the Vidhan Sabha. Cabinet secretary Ravikant said the government will construct 325 duplex bungalows with lawns,designed by top architects. The existing MLA flats will be razed and a new set of duplex bungalows would come up in two years in a 2 sq km area near the state legislature.

Race for teacher jobs

Over 16 lakh candidates appeared for the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) on Tuesday,followed by another 13 lakh on Wednesday,a measure of the extent of unemployment. TET-qualified candidates will get preference when primary and middle school teachers are appointed. No teachers had been appointed between 1995 and 2005,after which the government appointed over 2.5 lakh on contract in the last six years,with plans for another 3 lakh in the coming three-four years. The government has come under attack for recruiting them on the basis of their graduate and postgraduate scores and decided to take up TET to ensure quality teachers. TET has papers on mathematics,English/Hindi,social science and natural science.

Consolidation call

A two-day conclave,hosted by the news portal bihartimes.com,highlighted the need to build further on growth platforms already set up. Mangala Rai,former director general of Indian Council of Agricultural Research and now agriculture adviser to the CM,cited the example of Nalanda’s paddy farmers,saying that they have had a world record production but the experiment needs to be expanded for good results overall. Pradhan Sanjay,vice-president of Washington-based World Bank Institute,said the state has only entered the first generation of reforms and needs to follow up rigorously. Anil Kumar Sharma,managing director of Amarpali Group that has invested in Bihar,called for a comprehensive planning and industry roadmap.