Try governance not more govt jobs

Try governance not more govt jobs

Bihar is abuzz with electioneering. Promises and taller tales of opponent infamy fill the air, quite apart from that tiny virus that has brought the world to its knees. Indians are inured to the charm of poll promises — those that are not fulfilled can be explained away as election jumla, or ploy. However, if no effort is made to implement some, at least, of those promises, it can invite popular wrath, especially those with the plausibility and appeal of government jobs and waiver of loans.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has promised to provide one million government jobs to the people of Bihar, if the people vote it to power. This is the kind of populism that can disempower the government even further. Ever since the government of Bihar implemented the Sixth Pay Commission award for its employees, the state has been in a state of perpetual fiscal stress. Bihar is at the bottom of most statewise rankings of economic and social development indicators. Given its low base of economic development, it has been possible for Bihar to notch up fast growth in several years; still, it remains one of the least developed parts of the country.

It needs to spend on health centres, hospital beds, schools, teachers, courts, police stations, roads and other infrastructure. Even more, it needs the spending to deliver governance. It does not need to devote a still larger share of its funds on government personnel. Bihar has managed to present several revenue-surplus budgets in a row.

That has not taken Bihar out of its rut. The Narendra Modi government had promised several mega packages for Bihar, which had sounded good but have made little difference on the ground. Bihar needs better governance, whose absence holds back progress. With law and order, sugar factories could come up in Bihar.

With factories nearby, sugarcane cultivation can realise its innate, enormous potential and make Bihar India’s sugar capital. That is the kind of change parties need to promise, not to splurge more money on personnel the state can neither afford nor productively administer