Signs of progress

It pleases me to no end when I hear or read about something related to Bihar which further indicates that Bihar is making progress. I just read one such article which spoke about two situations that re-inforced the view that Bihar is making progress.

On wednesday (2nd December 2009), the BCC (Bihar Chamber of Commerce) invited the police for an interraction with its members. Representing the police department was Patna Zone IGP Mr. P. N. Rai. Such interractions are organized periodically where the BCC members tell about the problems they are facing to the police. Anybody can guess what the majority of the problems highlighted at these meetings in the last decade or more would have been... yes ... extortions and kidnappings... i.e. rangdari....

But this wednesday's meeting was very different. Instead of talking about rangdari, the BCC members were discussing traffic problems and traffic jams in Patna... Different... isn't it? Gone are they days when the main item on the agenda was rangdari... infact former BCC president Mr. Yugeshwar Pandey told the IGP "It is a compliment to your policing that we are not talking about `rangdari' which has almost ended". Now that people, who can effect changes, are free from worrying about extortions and saving themselves from kidnappings, they can focus on other developmental issues ... like the one about traffic jams in Patna...

I like this... it is a sure sign of a changing and progressing Bihar...

A second sign of progress is that the number of vehicles has increased 4 times in the last 4 years. Gone are they days when you would hear of someone's new car being hijacked or snatched as the owner drove the car from the showroom to his home. And then all of us know the long circulating humour about where that the car was likely to be found... At the house of the very politician friend whom the owner of the car would approach for help in finding his car.

Obviously, in the last 2 decades, given the way Bihar was deteriorating, no one thought that we could have a situation of traffic jams because of increased vehicles in Patna so quickly. But now that the increase in vehicles has become a reality, it is important to improve the infrastructure in Patna and other places as these places showcase Bihar's development opportunity and it would not look good for Bihar if potential investors land into traffic jams even before the industrial revolution in Bihar takes off.

While the police, BCC and other institutions think of ways to tackle this growing traffic situation, we should also do our bit for improving the traffic conditions in Bihar... like parking at proper places and not in the middle of the road, obeying traffic rules and not defying any of the traffic signals, listening to the traffic havaldar or inspector, etc. These small small changes from everyone will go a long way in making a strong and beautiful Bihar.

The article I refer to was published in The Times of India and can be found at " Traffic snarls, not crime, worry traders now" for those who are interested in getting more details.