Back in 2022

Over the past few years, there was much political drama and realignment in Bihar politics. For example Nitish aligning with Lallu, then breaking away, realigning with BJP. Even after alignment between JDU and BJP, both the partners are still not comfortable with each other, like they were in the first term. But, in all of this the pace of growth slowed down significantly. There is not much big projects taking off, older projects not progressing at the correct pace, etc. 

Hence there was not much to post and I have stayed off from posting articles here. However, I recently met with the Bihar Foundation of USA and realized there are private individuals who are working to bring smaller but significant changes at the grass root level. Hence, hoping to get back and report more this year.

5 Museums to get a facelift

Bihar State Building Construction Corporation Limited (BSBCCL) has initiated bids to revamp/do a facelift of 5 museums across Bihar.

1. Jana Nayak Karpoori Tahkur Smriti Sangrahalay in Patna
2. Maharaja Lakshmishwar Singh Museum at Darbhanga
3. Sita Ram Upadhyay Museum at Buxar
4. Bhagalpur Museum
5. Munger Museum

The art and culture department is also in the process of developing two theme parks:

1. A Heritage theme part at Bodh Gaya 
2. A museum showcasing pre-historic rock shelters with 3-D models at Kaimur

If done properly, it should help improve the tourism revenue for Bihar. However, there have been many projects initiated in the past but never saw the light of the day or got completed. Case in point. - Tutla Waterfalls (India's own Grand Canyon - Tutla (Tutala) in Bihar)

Other simple improvements can be having a website for these museums. Most of the museums do not even have a website which can come up when people do an online search.

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/71038664.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

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100 Richest Indians - 2018

The Top 10 richest people in India are

The top 10 richest in India are:

1. Mukesh Ambani; US$47.3 billion
2. Azim Premji; $21 billion
3. Lakshmi Mittal; $18.3 billion
4. Hinduja brothers; $18 billion
5. Pallonji Mistry; $15.7 billion
6. Shiv Nadar; $14.6 billion
7. Godrej family; $14 billion
8. Dilip Shanghvi; $12.6 billion
9. Kumar Birla; $12.5 billion
10. Gautam Adani; $11.9 billion

Anil Ambani doesn't figure here at all. From the latest estimates, he is not a billionaire any more. He was ranked 13th in 2011 with $5.9 billion and does not figure in the top 100; probably not in the top 200 too.

The complete can be found here or on the Forbes site.

India's 100 Richest On Forbes List See Modest Growth In Combined Wealth

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbespr/2018/10/03/indias-100-richest-on-forbes-list-see-modest-growth-in-combined-wealth/#b185b185e750
Forbes.com
https://www.forbes.com/india-billionaires/list/

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Will Ego end Nitish Kumar's Political Career.

It was not too long ago when Lallu Prasad had lost 2 successive state elections and his party was almost decimated from the face of the earth. People were happy with the developments that started taking place from 2005 onwards: lesser crimes, reduction in kidnappings, roads getting built, teachers getting appointed, etc;  all the right steps started being taken... People were happy that the jungle raj of Lallu was over and most people thought it was the end of the road for Lallu.

And then something happened that should not have happened. Nitish Kumar started thinking that the improvements in Bihar were a one-man show and that all credit went to him: EGO became big, so big that Nitish thought he could win Bihar elections on his own; he forgot that it was a team effort in building Bihar and turning it around from being a BIMARU state to a developing state. Nitish started focusing on building his base and thus he started taking in criminals and anti-social elements into the JD(U) before the elections. Not only that but also based on caste calculations he started wooing the Muslim voters;  so much so that he broke away from the NDA citing Modi as a reason. During this time he had also escalated the demand for special status for Bihar... but there was no development happening.. the road making had propped up Bihar's economy as much as it could, but further growth needed further development efforts which was not coming.

All this continued happening and like many people I continued to support Nitish, giving him the benefit of doubt. But with the political drama unfolding, I like most other people have become disenchanted by Nitish... Just because of his lust for power, control and autocracy, he forgot the real reason he was the CM: that he was an alternative to Lallu Yadav that people saw , he was hope for a Bihar turnaround and thus people voted for him.So much so that I felt that if Nitish won a second term and continued to focus on Bihar, no one would be able to turn back the development juggernaut of Bihar. But it appears that I was wrong.

Nitish himself has brought the growth story in Bihar to a halt. All that has been happening in Bihar in the last 3 years plus, is pure politics and no development. By partnering with Lallu, Nitish has shown that he is hungry for power and can go to any extreme to do that. Had it been just for Bihar's development, I would have been okay with it. But it's visibly not so.

Nitish appears to have deviated from the path he should have been on. By tying up with Lallu, he is only digging his grave. All is not lost though. There is still a possible chance for Bihar to continue developing and that is for Nitish to get back together with BJP. I agree the possibility is very low... But for Bihar , I am willing to bet on this small possibility. Bihar needs Nitish to be together with BJP... Can he see it.. can he see his political uncertainty and more than that can he see the demise of development in Bihar. Can he leave behind his ego and see things in the right perspective. Can he focus on the development of Bihar... Can he do what is in the best interest of Bihar... before it is too late... Time will only tell.

But in all this, may Bihar win and get a CM who will focus on developing Bihar and bringing it on par with India.

Where is the growth story of Bihar?

It's 2015 and I have not heard or read of any significant growth story for Bihar in the last more than a year. All I hear is about petty politicking. One party snaps (JD(U)) ties with another (BJP) and then takes the support of the very party (RJD) it fought against all this while. Not only that but RJD was also responsible for the state of affairs in Bihar during its rule of 15 years and still JD(U) aligns with it. And now, they are now talking of a merger...

And then a CM is propped up who is now doing everything in his power to remain the Bihar CM even after the next state elections and that too at the expense of the very person who made him the CM.

But all these political gimmicks has impacted the growth story of Bihar. Infact, for almost the last 3 years, there really hasn't been any development of sorts in Bihar. What are the people of Bihar going to do now... Even Nitish Kumar who looked like the torch bearer of development is Bihar has sidelined his focus onto political existance. Hardly does he realize that people loved him because he was bringing growth and if they see that he is not focusing on growth for Bihar at all, then the people of Bihar will not support him as they did before.

All these politicians just take the people for granted. Nitish, in his angst against Modi, did not see that people of Bihar voted for the BJP to see a BJP government in the center and would have voted for a JD(U) government for the state just because of Nitish's development in the first 6-7 years of his government. However, with the getting together of JD(U) and the RJD, Nitish has probably lost the chance he had to win the state assembly elections. Politicians have to realize that they cannot continue to take people for granted or expect them to vote based on past laurels.

Hence its time for Bihari politicians to come out of their politicking and focus on Bihar's development... This is what people of Bihar care for and this is what the people of Bihar want.

Congratulations Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi has come out a clear winner in this election. People from all segments, castes and religion have supported him and BJP+ to make Narendra Modi the PM. Everyone has great hopes on Modi that he would change the situation in India.

I have heard Modi specifically speak about developing states like Bihar and UP. I hope that Modi will quickly fulfill his commitments of developing Bihar at a rapid pace without letting the opposition that he has faced from JDU or other parties come in the way of development.

People in Bihar have voted for Bihar's development and have therefore supported Narendra Modi and now its time for Modi to justify the faith the Bihari people have shown in him.

May Narendra Modi succeed and may Bihar develop rapidly. 

Bihar Economic Survey 2013-14

The Bihar economic survey for 2013-14 is out. Clearly, the political maneuverings have taken a toll in Bihar's Growth story. While the GSDP and Per Capita income has increased, it has not increased at the same rate as before even though the industrial growth percentage is significantly higher than during the economic survey of 2012-13.

Key highlights:

1. Per Capita Income:
1. The Per Capita Income of Bihar has grown to Rs. 28,317 in 2012-13 , vs Rs. 25,653 in 2011-12. 
2. During the same periods the per capita income of India was Rs. 68,757 in 2012-13 vs Rs. 60,972 in 2011-12 (12.76% increase)
3. Bihar's Per Capita income grew by 10.4% vs 12.8% for India in the last one year of comparison
4. Thus the political in-fighting has taken a toll on Bihar.
5. The Per Capita income of Bihar today stands at 41.2% of India's per capita income whereas in 2006-07 it was 32.2% of India's per capita income
2. GSDP
1. The estimated GSDP at current prices in 2012-13 is Rs. 3.09 lakh crores vs Rs. 2.53 lakh crores in 2011-12
2. The GSDP at 2004-05 prices in 2012-13 is Rs. 1.65 lakh crores vs. Rs. 1.52 lakh crores in 2011-12
3. Best and Worst districts by GDP: In 2010-11, Patna (Rs. 57,483), Munger (Rs. 21,019) and Begusarai (Rs.18,447) are the most prosperous districts of Bihar. On the other end of the ranking ladder, the most economically backward districts are Sheohar (Rs. 6209), Banka (Rs. 7764) and Madhepura (Rs. 8102).
4. Industrial Sector Growth rate: 
1. The industrial sector growth rate stood at 17.1% in 2012-13.
2. This is higher than 9.5% in 2011-12, however lower than 28.4% achieved in 2010-11.
5. Roads: 
1. The total length of roads in Bihar stands at 1.62 lakh KMs in 2012-13 vs. 1.23 lakh KMs in 2011-12. These include rural unpaved roads.
2. Bihar has a road length of 174.88 kms. of road  per lakh population in 2012-13.

There are many more details about the economic status of Bihar and the details can be found at the Bihar Government's Economic Survey Report for 2013-14.

How will 2014 unfold for Bihar

The last one year has seen a very tumultuous political climate in Bihar and there has not been much talk of developments though some news or the other trickles in. However, the focus has been the JD(U) - BJP split and the Nitish - Modi spats.

There is a lot to talk about on these spats but then none of them is focused towards Bihar's growth or development and hence my blogging had ebbed to one of the lowest in 2013. However, as time goes by and as the government in Bihar is able to prioritize focus on development and de-prioritize the Nitish - Modi Spat or the JD(U) - BJP split, I think there would be more to write about Bihar this year.

Hoping for the best for Bihar's development this year. May the wheels of development catch speed and may Bihar develop more and more this year. 

6 member European Union Delegation visited Bihar

6 European union members have shown some interest in Bihar by visiting Bihar and learning about the Bihar growth story and the social and economic trends at the ADRI (Asian Development Research Institute). I am happy that other countries are taking interest in Bihar. I hope this translates into some growth opportunity for Bihar.

The list of six people are

1. Joao Cravinho - Ambassador of the European Union and this was his 2nd visit in less than 3 months.
2. Piere Vaesen - Ambassador, Embassy of Belgium
3. Jorge Roza de Oliveira - Ambassador, Embassy of Portugal
4. Janos Terenyi - Ambassador, Embassy of Hungary
5. Darja Bavdaz Kuret, Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia
6. Anne Marchal -First counsellor, head of section, political affairs

More details in the Times of India article European Union team discusses Bihar's broad trends

38% increase in automobile sales over last year (Indication of a good foundation)

With major development news from Bihar has almost stopped coming, there was one piece of news that brought some good feeling. The news was that the automobile sales in Patna was about 38% more than last year. This reflects a growing set of people with money to spend on automobiles (including 2 wheelers) but more importantly people feeling secure enough to spend money on cars without fears of someone snatching it from them.

At least the foundation built by Nitish and the NDA team is strong. I hope Nitish can refocus on development and Bihar's growth as he did during his first tenure as the CM. What is required is more focus, more focus and focus only on Bihar's growth and development.

More details about the vehicle sales in the Times of India article Vehicles' sale in fast lane this Diwali

What is happening to our CM, Mr. Nitish Kumar?

I sit here day in and day out reading about Bihar and all the news from Bihar. However, from the past many months, I really don't see any substantial development news coming out of Bihar. Forget substantial, I don't even see much news at all of any kind of development. I want to write about the developments but there is nothing to write about... No Industries, no resolution/reduction of the Maoist problem, no agricultural evolution, no speeding of power projects, etc , nothing which will make me sit-up ,watch and write.

What has happened to Mr. Chief Minister. In his efforts to consolidate his position in the political scenario in Bihar, he seems to have lost his way and drifted away from the very path that made him successful... Development and Bihar's Growth. With all the political maneuvering that is going on, Nitish Kumar is not able to focus on any development at all.

It is only development that will keep Nitish at the helm... All news of developments have stopped coming from the last 2 years... There is still time for Nitish to realize that his existence and success were only due to the focus on development that he had. Only focusing on Development is something which is going to come to his aid in future. If he wants to remain in power and continue to develop Bihar (which everyone had come to expect of him,) then Nitish has to again leave the other activities aside and focus on development. He has to put all his energy towards development over the next few months and beyond. Only then will he continue to have the support of the people of Bihar.

Nitish Kumar ji - It is time to rethink. Please focus back on development. Leave the other distractions and focus on Bihar's growth.

The breakup of NDA in Bihar

It has been a high drama time for sometime where the rift between JD(U) and BJP (at national level) continued to grow. The JD(U) and BJP at the state level continued to work together but yesterday, the two parties parted ways. I think it was a sad day for Bihar because both the parties together had given us hope. Anyway, this is done now and we have to look forward to how things shape up in Bihar.

For me, it is still Bihar's development that is top priority and I am hoping the following will happen:

1. Nitish appoints good people as ministers to fill the vacancies created by such good ministers like Sushil Modi.
2. No hooligans/criminals are made ministers just in the name of politics
3. Nitish and team surely and purely focusss completely on development and getting industries into Bihar.
4. The pace of development in Bihar picks up
5. Large industries and industrial houses start coming to Bihar
6. The education system and quality continues to see improvement and 
7. The law and order does not get disturbed in Bihar; if anything, it should only improve.

At this point, we are all watching and will continue to support Nitish if he focuses on Bihar's development and makes constant strides towards a developed Bihar. 

But Nitish, please take note: We, as a Bihari diaspora, are only interested in Bihar's development and have supported you in the last over 7 years because of the good work you have done. We will continue to support you if we see continued development. However, if we see vote bank politics without an adequate development, we will not hesitate to vote for someone else who we think will bring that development to Bihar.

We all are only interested in the development of Bihar.

Happy Holi

Holi Ka Gulal Ho, 
Rango Ki Bahar Ho, 
Gujhia Ki Mithas Ho, 
Ek Baat Khas Ho, 
Sab Ke Dil Main Pyar Ho, 
Yahi Apna Tyohaar Ho, 
Wish you all a Very Happy Holi!

Top 15 states as per %age per capita income growth 2011-12

Bihar again continues to rank #1 in per capita income percentage growth; the per capita income for Bihar grew at 11.75% in the fiscal 2011-12. This is good news again for Bihar and all Biharis. However, Bihar will have to grow much faster to improve the current per capita income of Rs. 25,653 and bring it to the national average of Rs. 68,747.  Bihar's per capita income is 37% of India's per capita income average and thus there is a lot of ground to cover.

Hence Special Category status is required to accelerate the growth rate of 10-15% in the 11th plan to 20-25% or more. Therefore I support the demand for Special Category Status for Bihar.

I have posted a chart of the Top 15 performing states in the per capita income percentage growth in fiscal year 2011-12 courtesy LiveMint.

35% reservation for Women in police recruitment

Just read an article that Nitish Kumar has announced 35% reservation for women in police recruitments. Happy to read this as it is another step in the right direction of empowering woman in Bihar and improving the status of woman in Bihar. A good step in my view.

43,000 new vacancies will be filled up in the Police department over the next 5 years. That's about 8500 recruitments every year. This would mean that 15,000 women will join the police department in the next five years. Kudos on the right step to empower women.

On another note, Bihar today has got just 69 cops per one lakh people against the national average of 143. A lot still needs to be done. I hope the 43,000 recruitments happen in time and help further improve the law and order situation in Bihar, not only in the large cities but also in the smallest pockets of Bihar.

More details can be found in the NDTV article "35% reservation for women in police recruitment in Bihar:Nitish Kumar"

Another big reason Why Bihar needs Special Category Status

I was reading an article in India Today. This article was published in the beginning on March (4th of March) and talks about how a political party in Maharashtra once again mistreated the people from UP and Bihar while they were trying to get admissions for their children into a Sainik School at Satara.

I did not know that Sainik Schools are for particular states only and that people from other states could not get admission there. But here the problem was not even that. The people who were trying to get admission had a domicile certificate from Maharashtra and hence were entitled to try and get admission there. However, this political party targeted these people just because they belonged to the states of UP & Bihar.

Hence, apart from all the other very important reasons for getting special category status for Bihar, I feel that just to stop other Indians from mistreating Biharis, Bihar needs special status category. Special status category will create the necessary avenues for Industrial and other developments in Bihar. This development will empower people, reduce their backwardness, reduce poverty and increase the education levels of the generations to come. So special category status will help get Bihar reach this level where others stop mistreating and misbehaving with the people of Bihar.

And therefore, I support Bihar's demand for Special Category Status.

More details about what happened in Satara can be found in the India Today article here.

Why Biharis should support the Adhikar Rally in Delhi today

Nitish Kumar and a lot of his cabinet colleagues, MLAs, MLCs and other politicians are gathering today for what is being called as Adhikar Rally. This rally has been organized for demanding special category status for Bihar. However people are debating whether special category status should be provided to Bihar or not.

Now consider this: 26% of the poor of India stay in Bihar and form 42% of Bihar's population. Is any other information really required to provide special category status to Bihar. If providing assistance, tax breaks, and more benefits to Bihar can result in the upliftment of so many poor people in India, then does anyone even need to think twice or even debate whether special category status should be given to Bihar.

People are saying that this is Nitish Kumar's show of strength to arrive at national political arena. However,
If special category status and the benefits associated with it are for the upliftment of the people, then I have no doubt that Special category status should be accorded to Bihar and therefore we all should support the Adhikar rally in Delhi today.

Hence everyone who is in Delhi today should try and be part of the rally. The support is very much required for the upliftment of Bihar.

I support the upliftment of Bihar.

Bihar Tableaux at Republic Day Parade

This year Bihar tableau will be one of the 15 tableaux from different states that get selected for the Republic day parade. The tableau are selected by a committee in New Delhi based on the creativity of the tableau idea.

What will be on display during the Republic day parade would be Sikki craft which most of us will see and correlate as most of us have seen dauras. The preview of the Bihar's exhibit is as below.

Ten artists from Bihar would be actually making the sikki grass crafts as the tableau passes through the Rajpath while a 2 min music specially composed for the tableau will be played continuously.

More details can be found in the Times of India article Bihar to showcase Sikki craft at Republic Day in Delhi and the image is courtesy India Forums

Starting Year 2013

The key news that I read about Bihar today was that the government was going to convert most routes reaching Patna from any direction (Patna to be connected by four-lane roads), would be widened to 4 lane roads. This is indeed good as we are far behind a lot of states where the state capitals are connected by 4 lane or even 6 lane roads from various directions which has been a vehicle for those states prosperity.

However, I had a very basic question as we step through day 2 of year 2013 : How long can we sustain the gdp growth and the growth of the people of Bihar just relying on the road constructions?

We need more longer term avenues through which people can by themselves generate money to sustain their growth. Road construction is just an artificial way of supplementing people's growth but can only be done for sometime. What we really need are other areas and avenues of development which can become a self sustaining and self propelling growth instrument. For this we need the following:

1. Power - Dedication and focus in getting Bihar the 5000MWs of power by 2015 that the minister has promised. Looking more granularly, there should be no delays in getting 500MWs of power added to Bihar every 6 months from the beginning of 2013. If anything this should only grow to 1000 MWs or more every 6 months by the end of 2013. (Read Bihar to become power surplus by 2016: Minister)
2. Industry - Try as much, we have not seen any real industrial grow in Bihar. The State government has to accord priority and make it attractive for industries and industrial houses to set foot in Bihar. Till now this seems to be lacking. Couple this with the problems of power, it looks like Bihar is going to remain devoid of industries until 2016. Without industries any major growth will be inhibited and the industrial policy has to be made so attractive that the industrial houses are forced to set shop in Bihar even with the problems of power being faced today.
3. Tourism - Like I keep mentioning, tourism is the mainstay of immediate growth of Bihar, outside of agriculture and a key focus has to be put to implement all the projects within defined time frames which seems to be not happening at this time. A lot of projects are being announced, but I don't hear any thing on the completion of these projects. Either they are not be announced or they are not getting completed in time. (Example - Tutla waterfalls about which I have written in my article Apathy in taking up Tourism projects)
4. Agriculture - Identify ways by which the farmers can be empowered to produce more out of their lands and prosper. Maybe its just spreading education on the advances in the art of farming. Today farmers are the people, who suffer the most in our country and make the least amount of money even though they feed the billion plus people of India.
5. Diversification outside of agriculture - Can we look at diversifying into other related areas like honey making, etc which can be done on not so much productive land? I don't know but thats a thought to ponder upon and there would be experts who could answer this question.

There is a lot to be done and miles to go before we can sleep. A strong, focused and motivated bureaucracy and state machinery including the state government is required in order to fulfill the dreams of Biharis. Are we all upto it?

Happy New Year 2013 and Expectations from Bihar in 2013

Dear Friends,
I want to wish you and all your families a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year. I hope this year brings a lot of joy and happiness in your families.

I also wish that the next round of improvements in Bihar start taking place this year. All of us know that there have been significant strides made in turning around Bihar. However there are big problems still lying in the areas of

1. Bureaucracy - A lot of people are focused in making money (read black money) for themselves and are not effectively doing their work.
2. Police - Doesn't still seem to be taking up any rightful work without asking for a bribe. (An example mentioned below)
3. Judiciary - Most cases keep taking ages to resolve because either the judges don't turn up for hearings or keep dragging the cases unnecessarily. The same is the case with the District Magistrates (DMs). (I know that this is happening now because I am myself going through this for the last 7 years)
4. Education - The teachers really need to be trained to deliver. First round saw lots of teachers getting appointed. The next round is the improvement of these teachers' quality.

I hope enough focus is put on these 4 areas this year without which the changes in the lives of local people will not happen. The next phase of Bihar's development will require a revamp in all the above areas.

Example email of the situation in Bihar:

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Cool Bihari [Bihar's - Change in Destiny and Progress] Bihar Progress Report 2012

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mukesh singh	Sat, Dec 15, 2012 at 8:49 AM
Reply-To: coolbihari@yahoogroups.co.in To: "coolbihari@yahoogroups.co.in"
PrashantJi,    Nice to see the reports, painting nice pictures of Bihar but reality is different. Of course it is better than Lalu era, but not as good as it is projected in our groups or Media. I was there a month before for Diwali and Chhath and I can cite just 2 incidents. 1. To lodge an FIR for mobile missing(to get same number), my brother has to pay 200 rupees. Yes he was able to pull SP number from website talk to somebody on that and got student concession rate as 200. [ Real rate may go up]. [ It was in Hajipur] 2. In my village we got electricity, first time AFAIK, but it is only for BPL family. You can't become consumer and only option is left to get unauthorized connection. Due to load people are buying Community Transformer since normal transformer are of 16 KB which can't take much load. My brother has complained to everyone including chief minister (seems there was some website for it), but results are same. I don't say things didn't changed, roads are good overall mood in village is that in corruption front it is becoming worse than Laloo era, specially in Teachers appointment, people told me that loopholes were put in this to benefit Mukhiya and other official officials .. My experience may be one off but just wanted to share ... Mukesh's experience highlights some of the problems that still exist today and needs focus and willpower to bring in these changes by the people and by the Government of Bihar.  May Bihar Win: Prashant (www.progressivebihar.com)

Apathy in taking up tourism projects : Case in point - Tutla

The state tourism department keeps announcing new tourism projects all the time. However, how many of them are really being executed is a big question in my mind.

In February of 2009, when the then Union Minister of State , Kanti Singh, had visited Bihar , he had ambitiously announced that Tutla waterfalls would be developed as a major eco and adventure tourism site of international importance. (Read India's Own Grand Canyon - Tutla (Tutala) Waterfalls)

Today after almost 4 years, there is no news or progress in developing the Tutla waterfalls. Forget any progress, there are still no pictures available of Tutla that is spread over 240 sq kms.

But the apathy doesn't end there. As I understand, the Central Tourism ministry will only take up projects when the state tourism department sends a proposal to the center. However, Bihar's tourism department did not think that its worth taking up such a project proposal across. Amazing that no one has thought of putting together such a proposal that too for a place which had tremendous tourism potential.

Over the last 1.5 years, I have written atleast 8 times to various tourism ministers at state and center, tourism secretaries, Chief Minister, Chief Minister's secretaries, PAs, etc but have not received a response ever from anyone except from Mr. Sandeep Kumar, who is the PS to the current Tourism Minister of State. His response was  - Has the state govt sent any proposal?

Beyond that nothing. This was in September of 2011. Subsequent messages to the various people did not yield in any responses.

If this is the way the tourism department works in Bihar, then Bihar will never be able to capitalize on the tourism potential it possesses. And tourism is the 2nd most important avenue for Bihar's growth after agriculture. Do we really need bureaucrats like the current, who are inactive and cannot even take through identified projects in 4 years time. Infact the entire bureaucracy needs a revamp... It appears that most of them are not seeing my mails (so not responding) or are just ineffective or  are not doing their work. The list of people that I have written to are
 

Sandeep Kumar	PS to MoS - Center
tourismminister@nic.in	Minister of Tourism - Center
Sultan Ahmed	MoS Tourism - Central
S. K. Pintu	Bihar Minister for Tourism
secytourismbihar@yahoo.com	Tourism Secretary - Bihar
directortourismbihar@gmail.com	Director Tourism - Bihar
jd.tourism1@gmail.com	Joint Director Tourism - Bihar
dy.directortourism@gmail.com	Dy. Director Tourism – Bihar
Ghufran Ahmad	Assistant Director - Tourism (Bihar)
Priteshwar Prasad	Assistant Director - Tourism (Bihar)

And then follow-ups with the following

Nitish Kumar	CM of Bihar
cms-secy-bih@nic.in	Chief Minister's Secretary
gc-cms-bih@nic.in	Public Grievance Cell – Bihar
ps1-cms-bih@nic.in	Private Secretary to CM

Snapshots of my mails are as follows:

Email 1

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Prashant	Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 11:33 PM
To: Tourism Minister, Sultan Ahmed, Sandeep Kumar
Dear Sirs, I had read about an article sometime back when the erstwhile Tourism Minister of State had announced that Tutla Waterfalls will be developed as a Tourist destination and it was the Grand Canyon of India. This happened on Feb 10, 2009. I was trying to find out information on the progress of this project but could not find any further information on this , hence writing to you. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-02-10/patna/28010413_1_mundeshwari-union-minister-site Would it be possible to get an update on the project? Will appreciate to get any feedback on this. Regards Prashant

Email 2

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Sandeep Kumar  Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 8:59 PM Reply-To: Sandeep Kumar  To: "Prashant" Has the state govt sent any proposal? Sent from my Nokia phone -----Original Message----- From: Prashant Sent:  21/09/2011, 1:12  AM To: Tourism Minister, Sultan Ahmed, Sandeep Kumar Subject: Re: Tutla Water falls - Status Hi, I was hoping to hear back on this. Do let me know. Regards Prashant On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 11:33 PM, Prashant  wrote:  Dear Sirs,  I had read about an article sometime back when the erstwhile Tourism  Minister of State had announced that Tutla Waterfalls will be developed as a  Tourist destination and it was the Grand Canyon of India. This happened on  Feb 10, 2009. I was trying to find out information on the progress of this  project but could not find any further information on this , hence writing  to you.  http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-02-10/patna/28010413_1_mundeshwari-union-minister-site  Would it be possible to get an update on the project?  Will appreciate to get any feedback on this.  Regards  Prashant

Email 3 Prashant  Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 5:42 PM To: Nitish Kumar Cc: Grievance Cell - Bihar, Private Secretary to CM No replies from anyone. ----- On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 1:04 PM, Prashant  wrote: Dear Nitishji, While I know you are very busy on getting the special status and necessary support from the center to accelerate Bihar's development, there are areas that need focus like tourism which can help continue the growth of Bihar while we wait for more industries to come. I was very excited about the Tutla Water falls project when it was reported in Feb 2009 as it seemed to have an immense potential not only to attract foreign tourists but domestic tourists as well. However, I am dismayed to see that there was no follow up done by either the Bihar tourism ministry or Center's tourism ministry. The center was expecting a proposal from Bihar for Tutla's development and apparently that proposal has not gone. I had written a couple of mails to various people in the ministries and I did get a reply only from Sandeep Kumar (part of Center's tourism department) asking whether the Bihar government had sent across the proposal, but did not get any other response. I think some of these areas do have a strong potential and just requires focus. Whether people reply to me or not is immaterial as long as the work continues. I wanted to bring this to your notice as it often helps drive development across Bihar. Thanks Prashant ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Prashant Date: Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 3:19 PM Subject: Re: Tutla Water falls - Status To:Tourism Minister – Central, Sultan Ahmed, Sandeep Kumar, S. K. Pintu, Tourism Secretary – Bihar, Director Tourism – Bihar, Joint Director Tourism – Bihar, Dy. Director Tourism – Bihar, Ghfran Ahmad (Asst Dir – Tourism, Bihar), Priteshwar (Asst Dir- Tourism, Bihar) I haven't had a response in almost a year. Can any of you senior people respond to my query on Tutla Waterfalls please. Thanks Prashant www.progressgivebihar.com What can I say. The Tourism department needs to become agile and focussed. And so do the others in the bureaucracy. Otherwise Bihar will still remain the 8th or 9th state in the ranks of the number of tourists visiting Bihar, whereas it has the potential to becoming one amongst the Top 5 states.

Improvement in Services - Healthcare leads the pack

A survey carried out by A. C. Nielsen suggests that people are feeling happy with the improvement in core serivces in Bihar.  The result of the survey carried out by A. C. Nielsen states that 86% of the surveyed people are satisfied with the improvement in health facilities in Bihar. The survey, however doesn't indicate the sample size of people who were surveyed, so it is difficult to state if this is a Pan Bihar phenomenon and represents Bihar as a whole or whether this is restricted to some region or areas of Bihar. One good thing is that its carried out in rural Bihar.

#	Service (Improvement  in quality of service in the last 4 years)	Percentage people satisfied
1	Health Services	86%
2	Certificates	77%
3	Schools	76%
4	Services related to pension	76%
5	Ration shops under Public Distribution System (PDS)	72%
6	Anganwadis	71%
7	MGNREGS	86%
8	Grievance redressal	36%

Thus people feel that in general there is improvement in the services in last 4 years which is a good sign that shows that development is happening and people are perceiving the developments.

This and more details can be found in the Economic Times article "Healthcare improves in Rural Bihar - Study"

Tourism Status in Bihar ( As of the End of October 2012)

The tourism data released by the Government of India at the end of October 2012 shows that the total number of tourists visiting Bihar in the 1st 10 months of this year was 1.95 crores which was about the same number of tourists that visited Bihar in the complete year 2011. This is about a 20% increase in the number of tourists that visited Bihar in 2011. However the number of foreign tourists that visited Bihar remains flat and roughly the same number of tourists will visit Bihar in 2012 as they did in 2011.

The below table represents the total number of tourists that have visited Bihar in the last 9 years and is courtesy the Tourism Website of Bihar.

Year	Total Domestic Tourists	Total Foreign Tourists	Total Tourists
2012 (First 10 months)	1,88,00,000	7,93,000	1,95,93,000
2011 (Jan. TO Dec)	1,83,97,490	9,72,487	1,93,69,977
2010 (Jan. To Dec)	1,57,87,256	4,92,913	1,62,80,169
2009 (Jan. To Dec)	1,57,84,679	4,23,042	1,62,07,721
2008 (Jan. To Dec)	1,18,89,611	3,45,572	1,22,35,183
2007 (Jan. To Dec)	1,03,52,887	1,77,362	1,05,30,249
2006 (Jan. To Dec)	1,06,70,268	94,446	1,07,64,714
2005 (Jan. To Dec)	86,87,220	63,321	87,50,541
2004 (Jan. To Dec)	81,35,574	38,118	81,73,692

These numbers varying slightly as you see different government sites and publications but is a fairly accurate representation of the number of tourists who have visited Bihar in the last 9 years.

Further information on the 2012 data can be found in the Times of India article "1.95cr tourists visit Bihar in 10months of 2012"