FEATURE

CPI(ML)’s Charter for the People of Bihar

Fight against Corruption: Corruption has become a major drag on development and it marks a serious denial of dignity and democracy for the poor. The CPI(ML) is therefore determined to wage a “zero-tolerance to corruption” campaign and insists on comprehensive probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation or other credible and competent agencies into all frauds unearthed by the CAG and other vigilance agencies to ensure that all officials, politicians and contractors/middlemen responsible for misappropriation and diversion of public funds and PDS loot are brought to book. More often than not, corruption flows from the top and it is therefore particularly important to mete out stern punishment in every case of corruption in high places. The CPI(ML) demands that each Minister and any other politician holding the office of profit and each bureaucrat be legally mandated to publicly declare his/her assets that s/he possessed before s/he occupies the public position, and then at every six months interval during the period of holding such position, failing which the concerned minister/official should face automatic termination. Special courts in sufficient numbers must be created right from the state level down to district and subdivision levels to try corruption cases through speedy trials.
Democratic Rights and Democratic Debate: There can never be ‘good governance’ without accountability, democratic rights and serious democratic debates on policy issues.  Successive governments in Bihar have systematically downgraded democracy by curtailing democratic rights and reducing the role of the State Assembly as a platform for serious policy debates. The CPI(ML) rejects this authoritarian subversion of democracy, feudal-bureaucratic style of governance and increasingly corrupt and opportunist political culture, and is determined to fight for democratic principles and rights in every sphere and promote serious public debate both within and outside the Assembly.
BPL: The latest UNDP report estimates the incidence of poverty in Bihar to be as high as 80%, but the BPL list in Bihar has become a tool for not only gross underestimation of poverty but also large-scale exclusion of the poor. The CPI(ML) will press for automatic inclusion of all agricultural and other rural labourers, small peasants and artisans, low-paid contract/unorganized workers, employees working on token honorarium in BPL category.
MNREGA: Immediate doubling of the current provisions to ensure 200 days of assured annual employment to two persons per family at a daily minimum wage of Rs. 200. Bihar has a very poor record of implementation of MNREGA. The government claims to have provided jobs to all applicants, but in terms of work given (persondays), the ratio has actually come down from 35.34% in 2006-06 to 27.54%. If the proportion is calculated relative to the number of jobcards issued, the figure will be as low as 9% in 2009-10. Yet the Bihar government has not paid unemployment allowance for failure to provide 100 days’ employment. While fighting for improving the provisions of MNREGA, the CPI(ML) will press for strict enforcement of all norms including prompt allocation of work and payment of wages, payment of unemployment allowance, childcare and other facilities for women workers, check on mechanization and middlemen in MNREGA projects and supervision through general body meetings of the beneficiaries.
PDS: Overhauling of PDS in compliance with Supreme Court food orders to ensure 50 kgs of food grains at Rs. 2 per kg and 5 litres of kerosene oil at Rs. 2 per litre to all food-deprived and low-income groups; expansion of commodity coverage under PDS to include all items of essential consumption including pulses, edible oil, soaps and detergents; replacing the present system of private dealership with a network of government-run ration shops in every panchayat.
Land Reforms and Tenancy Rights: The D Bandyopadhyay commission has made a modest set of proposals for land reforms and tenancy rights. CPI(ML) wants immediate and complete implementation of all recommendations made by the commission including (i) standardization and strict enforcement of ceiling laws so as to provide 1 acre cultivable land to every landless family, (ii) provision of 10 cents of homestead land for the shelterless and regularization of all settlements of the poor and the oppressed, (iii) registration of all tenants/sharecroppers, regulation of rent and protection of the right to cultivate and extension of necessary assistance to tenants/sharecroppers to help them develop their agriculture.

Flood-control and Water Management: Recurrent floods are one of the topmost problems facing Bihar, but the root of this problem lies not so much in nature’s fury as in criminal negligence on the part of successive governments in Patna and Delhi. The Bihar government submitted proposals for plan assistance worth Rs. 17059.62 crore for flood control in the Eleventh Plan, but did precious little to implement its own proposals and follow even the standard precautionary measures. The result was the unprecedented Kosi disaster in 2008 – but while the government has now turned to the World Bank for more funds in the name of rehabilitation, the breaches in Gandak embankments this year clearly show the continued criminal negligence and callousness on the part of the Bihar government. All pressure must be exerted on the state and central governments for immediate implementation of short-term and longer-term measures for flood-control, water management and rehabilitation of flood victims.
Irrigation: Despite Bihar remaining primarily an agricultural economy, not more than 50 percent of the cultivable area is irrigated. This strikingly low figure is despite creation of higher irrigation potentials for irrigating about 70-80 percent cultivable area. The gap between potential and actual irrigation area is because of serious neglect of distributory and field channel system, decreasing carrying capacity in the canals because of siltation, and virtual collapse of the government-run tubewell system, to mention three major reasons. Thus, increasing coverage area of irrigation by strengthening the existing system for realizing its potential should be a major agenda of reform. Modernisation of Sone canal and immediate completion of Kadwan reservoir project should be on top of Bihar’s irrigation priorities.
Lack of supply of power and rapidly increasing diesel prices have also proved major obstacles and Nitish Kumar’s promise of 4.64 million borewells has turned out to be completely bogus. If the government cannot guarantee assured power supply, it must consider providing free diesel for pump irrigation pumpsets. While neglecting the issue of maintenance, modernization and expansion of irrigation facilities, the government has been pursuing a strategy of privatization of irrigation, thereby further weakening the system and excluding the poor and middle peasants and tenants/sharecroppers from irrigation facilities. The CPI(ML) is determined to resist this course and fight for the peasant’s right to assured and affordable irrigation facilities.
Development of Agriculture and Allied Sectors: Development of agriculture and allied sectors including horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy, poultry and fisheries remains central to any notion of meaningful economic development in Bihar. Apart from guaranteeing thorough-going land reforms and increased public investment in agriculture and allied sectors, the state and central governments must be compelled to extend comprehensive assistance to the agricultural and allied population. Cheap credit, assured power and water and timely supply of subsidized inputs, procurement centres at every panchayat, coldstorage facilities and veterinary hospitals at every block, pro-peasant agricultural research and extension service – these are some of the key demands of agriculture and rural livelihood, and no government can be allowed to abdicate its responsibility on this score.
Power and Electrification: Compared to the national average per capita annual consumption of electricity (613 units), Bihar lags way behind at 75 units. Under the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme (RGGVY), Bihar was supposed to reach universal electrification by 2012, but by current estimates only 30% of Bihar villages have been covered till date. Among Bihar’s 1.26 crore rural households, only 6.5 lakh – a shocking 5.12% – are electrified. And in terms of supply, most of the ‘electrified’ areas receive very little and highly erratic power supply. Instead of taking urgent steps to improve power generation and rationalize the power distribution system by prioritizing sectors like agriculture, weaving, industry, education and healthcare, the government has only been desperate to dismantle the State Electricity Board and privatise the power sector. While opposing privatization, the CPI(ML) stresses rapid completion of ongoing power projects and also promotion of decentralized renewable energy to meet Bihar’s growing energy needs.
Road and Public Transport: While National and State Highways in Bihar show a degree of improvement, rural roads as well as roads inside district/subdivisional towns are still in very bad shape. Huge gap still exists in this sector seriously constraining the communication and marketing linkage between rural areas and the administrative locations, markets and towns and cities. Against a total of 82,958.63 kms of road network, still about 36,851.63 kms of roads, or 44.42 percent of roads, are kuccha as against 10 percent in Gujarat and 23 percent in Tamil Nadu. Bihar has low penetration of road network with only 77 km road length per 100 sq km, compared with 169 km in Orissa, 118 km in Tamil Nadu, and 97 km in Uttar Pradesh. What is worse, there is still virtually no public transport system in most parts of Bihar. While fighting for a comprehensive network of all-weather motorable roads, and optimum and transparent utilization of concerned resources, the CPI(ML) insists on a safe, affordable and effective public transportation system to take care of the growing communication needs of the people.
Healthcare: All shortages in public health infrastructure and staff strength, identified in the Bihar Programme Implementation Plan (PIP) of NRHM and other recent surveys, must be filled up on war-footing. One Community Health Centre (CHC) should be set up in every panchayat and one 50-bedded hospital for every 30 km radius, assured supply of medicines for all sub-centres, PHCs and CHCs.  Bihar needs at least 3 AIIMS-style super-specialities, and at least one medical college for each district.
Safe Drinking Water, Hygiene and Sanitation: Free and universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation has been recognized by the UN as a basic human right. The Bihar government must take urgent steps to guarantee this right and stop the growing privatization and commercialization of water. Building community toilets in every village, cleaning up all water bodies and freeing drinking water from dangerous effluents and chemicals, and adopting effective measures for water harvesting to stop the falling level of groundwater must be taken up as a priority.
Literacy and Education: Bihar’s record on the literacy front is still lagging behind most states in India with the literacy rate among dalits being as low as 28.47% (only 15.58% among dalit women). Rapid and sustained improvement on literacy and education front is crucial for Bihar’s overall progress. In this regard, the CPI(ML) insists on complete implementation of the recommendations made by the Commission on Common School System in its report submitted in June 2007 to ensure free and compulsory education for all within the 6-14 years age-group. As visualized by the CSS commission, Bihar will need nearly 60,000 additional schools – another 26,000 primary schools, 15,500 middle schools and 19,000 senior secondary schools, and raise the strength of teachers from 3.72 lakhs in 2007-08 to 11.2 lakhs by 2012-13 and 15.28 lakhs by 2016-17. The Nitish government’s policy of recruiting teachers on contract/honorarium basis runs completely contrary to this vision – this policy must be scrapped and teachers must be provided job security and adequate training to improve the quality of teaching. The CPI(ML) also calls for regularization and upgradation of Madarsas and Sanskrit Vidyalayas according to this framework .
Industrialisation: The Nitish model of organizing glamorous “Global Meets”, wooing of corporate capital and looking to foreign agencies like DFID of UK, USAID and World Bank for promotion of industrial investment in Bihar has been a complete failure. The CPI(ML) calls for greater conversion of savings accumulated in Bihar into investment by ensuring a higher credit-deposit ratio by nationalized banks, and a special package to ensure reopening of closed mills, revival of sick units in the public sector and promotion of employment-intensive agro-based and other small- and medium-scale industries.
Urban Development: Bihar is the least urbanized among all Indian states and yet the government’s vision of urban development is limited only to Patna. The CPI(ML) stands for rapid development of urban infrastructure and urgent provision of civic amenities in all district and subdivisional headquarters. The party will also press for restoration of urban land ceiling norms to curb speculative real estate deals and the consequent rise of real estate barons and land sharks.
Land Acquisition: Like in many other parts of the country, of late Bihar is also witnessing a land acquisition spree in the name of widening of roads, setting up of plants and all kinds of construction activities. The CPI(ML) is opposed to any forcible acquisition of land leading to displacement and dispossession of people without informed consent and adequate compensation and resettlement. As a policy, the government should make utmost effort to avoid acquiring cultivable land and displacing/disturbing existing settlements. As far as the demand of land for industrial purposes, against a total land of 4330 acres involved in different industrial areas, even till date about 880 acres are lying vacant. Additionally, a careful scrutiny of sick and closed units can identify which are beyond any possibility of revival, and land occupied by such units can also be freed to make that available to new units.
Mining: While most mineral resources of undivided Bihar are now in Jharkhand, Bihar continues to have heavy amount of sand- and stone-mining activities. Much of this mining is unregulated and operated and controlled by the criminal-bureaucrat-politician nexus. The CPI(ML) calls for regulation of this economy to ensure a better deal for the workers and the common people involved and protection of the environment.
Disaster Management: Bihar suffers from a recurrent cycle of floods, droughts and other disasters and yet disaster management remains one of the neglected areas of governance. In terms of both planning and preparedness and execution of relief and rehabilitation – the official response continues to be most lethargic and irresponsible. Construction of elevated roads and elevated platforms in flood-prone areas, safe storage of foodgrains, flood-resistant housing models, provision of fire brigades at every block, and district-level disaster-management planning and availability of trained personnel for prompt execution of such plans – these are certain basic measures that every government must guarantee.
Panchayati Raj: Introduction of party-based elections in panchayats and election of mukhia on the basis of majority support among elected ward members as in panchayat samitis and zila parishads; provision of regular salary and allowance for all elected people’s representatives in different panchayati raj institutions; giving more powers to panchayats regarding local planning and implementation and ending bureaucratic interference in panchayat functioning
Cooperatives: Bihar needs a vibrant network of broad-based and democratically functioning cooperatives to service the multiple needs of agriculture and allied sectors, handicrafts and small industries. To this end, the existing cooperative rules should be amended to facilitate mass membership and democratic participation and supervision in various cooperatives and free them from the clutches of bureaucratic domination and mafia control. The government is transferring the agricultural marketing sector to private hands – the CPI(ML) opposes this policy of privatization, and calls for development of agricultural marketing – for both supply of inputs and procurement of crops and marketing of artisanal production – through a network of cooperatives down to every panchayat.
Teachers: Implementation of recommendations of the Common School System commission; regularization of all teachers and ending the practice of contract/casual employment in posts of permanent nature; guarantee of time-bound promotion and pension benefits for all teachers; strict implementation of the Patna HC directives on filling the teacher vacancies in schools; Sixth Pay Commission parity in the salaries of all school and college teachers and mandatory housing quarters for all government school and college teachers; treating teachers in primary/secondary schools at par with their counterparts in colleges/universities in regard to their right to vote and contest in MLC elections; just settlement of the longstanding issue of teachers in unaided schools and colleges, and extension of all essential facilities to such unaided but otherwise functional educational institutions.
Government Employees: Democratisation of the Bihar State Government Servant Conduct Rules to guarantee full democratic rights, including the right to strike, for government employees and teachers; immediate filling up of all vacant posts in government departments; revival of all government and semi-government undertakings with immediate payment of all accumulated wage-arrears; regularization of all employees employed on contract/honorarium/casual/daily basis; parity with central government employees in terms of pay scales, allowances, promotion, pensions and other benefits; comprehensive enforcement of all past agreements and court orders upholding the rights of employees.
Unorganised Workers: Minimum wages in Bihar should be revised immediately in parity with the minimum norms prescribed by the Sixth Pay Commission for government employees. Welfare boards must immediately be constituted in different industries/occupations to ensure housing, healthcare, education and pension benefits for unorganized workers and their families including agricultural labourers, and adequate compensation for all accident victims. The government must issue proper identity cards to all unorganized workers to save them from administrative harassment.
Women: Free education for girl students at all levels; 33% job reservation for women in all spheres; regularization of women engaged in ASHA, Anganwadi, Mamata and Midday Meal schemes; provision of working women’s hostel facilities in every district/subdivisional town; compliance with relevant Supreme Court guidelines and central/state legislations and initiation of necessary new legislative measures to save women from sexual harassment in workplaces and from domestic violence and other anti-women crimes, separate cells or helpline for women in every institution that deals with the public. The Centre and State should jointly guarantee a credit of Rs. 50,000 on demand to any individual woman without collateral at an interest rate of 2 per cent per annum. The interest on SHG loans should also be brought down to not more than 4 per cent per annum.
Senior Citizens:  All senior citizens in low-income families should get a minimum monthly pension of Rs. 1,000 and free healthcare facilities, provision of old-age homes and special care centres in every block to take care of old people without any family support.
Children: To abolish child labour in all forms and provide all children up to 14 years of age with free and compulsory education, the Common School System commission in its June 2008 report suggested a set of concrete measures such as supplementing the income of families of child labourers or street children by at least Rs. 1,000 per month apart from taking full care of all needs of such children to ensure their enrolment and retention in schools. We call for a survey of all child labour and street children in Bihar and demand their urgent rehabilitation according to the norms prescribed by the CSS Commission.
Students: Education in Bihar is reeling under the combined assault of privatization, rampant commercialization, systemic neglect and declining standard, forcing more and more students to migrate in search of quality education. Unregulated coaching institutions and private colleges are mushrooming in the state and students are being forced to pay exorbitant fees for the so-called job-oriented courses that no longer guarantee any jobs. The CPI(ML) calls for reversal of this trend, regulation of coaching institutions, reduction of fees and special scholarships for students from low-income families. All vacancies in colleges/universities must be filled up immediately to enable existing institutions to function efficiently. Patna, Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur universities should be upgraded to central universities, and the proposed branch of Aligarh Muslim University opened without any delay. Apart from setting up an IIM chapter in Patna, the state should take initiative to ensure affordable quality courses in IT, engineering and medical education in Patna and all major urban centres and provide ample hostel facilities for students. College and university students must have their full democratic rights to elect representative student unions.  
Youth: Provision of monthly unemployment allowance of Rs. 1,000 for every unemployed youth not getting any employment within six months after registration with state employment exchange; holding of railway and other national-level recruitment examinations for Bihar-based applicants at centres inside Bihar; construction of youth hostels in district/subdivisional towns.
Urban Poor: Most Nagar Panchayats in Bihar, though formally considered urban, have a socio-economic profile that is still predominantly rural; yet the poor in these areas are deprived of the BPL schemes available for rural areas. The same benefits should therefore accrue to the BPL population in Nagar Panchayat areas. Likewise, there should also be dedicated housing scheme and adequate civic amenities for the urban poor in bigger towns. 
Street Vendors and Small Traders: All street vendors in Bihar should be provided with proper licence and identity cards and protected from harassment by the police, officials or money-extorting goons. The CPI(ML) is also committed to the defence of small retail traders against extortion threats, other criminal offences, harassment by police and bureaucracy and heavy taxation.
Looms, Handicrafts and Artisans: There should be a special scheme of assistance for handicrafts and artisans. The Bihar government should organize relief for the weavers of Bhagalpur to protect the famous Bhagalpur silk and tussar from the impact of the global crisis and to curb cheaper Chinese fake products. Assured 12-hour power supply should be guaranteed to all powerloom clusters in Bhagalpur as well as in Biharsharief, woolen weaving in Nalanda, cotton powerlooms in Gaya, Nawada, Madhubani, Banka, Purnea and other centres in the state. The Weavers’ Service Centre in Bhagalpur should be upgraded to an Export Promotion Council/Centre and National Institute of Fashion Technology/Design branches should be set up in Bhagalpur and other prominent weaving centres, mainly to cater to the children from the families of weavers. Madhubani painters and artisans producing famous wall-hangings with Madhubani painting designs also need similar institutional support. The central and state governments should extend a one-time grant of Rs. 1 lakh to all artisans.
Housing: 10 cents of homestead land as recommended by the D Bandyopadhyay Commission, a proper housing scheme for both rural and urban poor, minimum housing grant of Rs. 200,000 and cheap housing loan at 2% interest for low-income groups

Welfare and Rights of Muslim Community:  The NDA government in Bihar pretends to be a great champion of Muslim welfare. It set up yet another commission on Bhagalpur riots, but only an interim report was submitted and while the committee recommended higher compensations on the lines of the 1984 victims of anti-Sikh pogrom, the number of victims was drastically reduced and the enhanced compensation/rehabilitation is yet to be effected. The CPI(ML) demands proper compensations and pension for all victims of Bhagalpur riot and similar compensation and pension for riot victims in other areas like Sitamarhi, Biharsharief and Nawada. Funds meant for Muslim welfare are also lying unused - last two years (2008-09 and 2009-10) saw some 25% funds (more than Rs. 60 crore) remain unspent. The CPI(ML) calls for effective implementation of the recommendations of Sachar Committee and Ranganath Mishra commission and time-bound execution of the ongoing multi-sector development programmes not only in Bihar’s seven minority concentration districts but also to minority concentration blocks in other districts, with special emphasis on the community’s education, healthcare and employment needs.
SC/ST and Reservation: A commission should be set up to investigate deprivation and discrimination against SCs-STs in all spheres and to propose remedial measures covering all sections of dalits and adivasi people; Tharus should be accorded ST reservation; dalit Christians and dalits among Bengali refugees should be recognized as SC; women should get 33% reservation in Assemblies and Parliament; job reservation for SC/ST in private sector
Migrant Workers: Bihari workers constitute one of the biggest contingents of inter-state migrant population in India and are known for their tremendous contribution to the development of agriculture, industry and the service sector in the relatively advanced areas. Yet of late Bihar workers and education- and job-seeking youth have been victims of chauvinistic violence in state after state. The Bihar government must set up a migrant workers’ protection and welfare authority,  with offices in major centres of migration like Mumbai, Delhi, Ludhiana, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Surat etc.) so as to take up the cases of attacks, harassment/ill-treatment and violation of labour laws hurting Bihar migrant workers in States of outmigration, and establish a welfare fund to rehabilitate migrant workers displaced by economic crisis as in Dubai/Gulf, natural disasters like in Surat or terrorist/chauvinist attacks as in Mumbai, Manipur, Assam and Northeast or eviction due to urban beautification as in Delhi and Mumbai. Bihar Assembly should pass a resolution demanding a new stringent Central legislation in place of the present toothless Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act.
Rehabilitation of Victims of Massacres, Riots, Disasters and Displacement: Bihar has any number of families with deep scars of caste massacres, communal riots and state-promoted natural disasters. Yet successive governments have made only empty promises for the victim families – the record of Nitish Kumar government being one of the worst (disbanding of Amir Das Commission, politics of compensation with Bhagalpur riot victims, lack of compensation and rehabilitation measures for Kosi and other flood victims, lack of crop insurance and compensation in drought-affected areas). The CPI(ML) will fight for bringing all perpetrators of massacres and riots and officials guilty of inviting disasters to justice and provision of adequate compensation and rehabilitation measures for the victim families.
Prohibition: The department of prohibition has effectively been transformed by the Nitish government into the department of all-out promotion of liquor consumption. The CPI(ML) calls for urgent reversal of this ruinous trend and is determined to promote anti-liquor movement through popular mobilization.
RTI: In 2009, the Nitish Kumar government amended the Right to Information Act 2005, imposing unwarranted restrictions on the exercise of the right and limiting the concessions available for the BPL category. The CPI(ML) demands immediate withdrawal of these limiting provisions and unrestricted scope for the people to exercise their right to information so as to subject governance to greater transparency and accountability. 
Languages and Culture: The state should uphold the right of every student to study his/her mother-tongue, if not receive education in mother-tongue. In this regard, the government must take urgent steps to recruit adequate number of Urdu and Bengali teachers. The CPI(ML) supports the demand for inclusion of Bhojpuri language in the Eighth Schedule. Along with Maithili and Bhojpuri, special measures should also be taken for the protection and development of regional languages like Angika, Bajjika and Maghi. The state government should set up a Bihar Film Development Corporation to promote film-making in Bihar, provide tax exemptions to local films and cash incentives to local talents, launch an NSD-type institution to help local talents in the field of theatre and a Sahitya Parishad to promote publication of literary works by emerging writers. There should also be several Regional Cultural Centres to foster the rich cultural traditional tradition in different parts of Bihar. Auditoria and cultural centres should be set up in all district headquarters as a tribute to eminent poets and writers like Nagarjun, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Phaniswarnath Renu and Gorakh Pandey.
Sports: Adoption of a sports policy to encourage rural sports, ensure availability of sports teachers and training facilities at every school and spot and groom budding talents at the grassroots level. There must be a properly built sports stadium in every block and a well-equipped sports complex in every district/subdivision headquarter.
Tourism: Tourism in Bihar is currently mostly confined to a few prominent Buddhist sites and places of religious pilgrimage. The tourism potential of Bihar in regard to places of historical importance and natural beauty remains largely untapped. The government of Bihar must come up with a comprehensive tourism development plan with due emphasis on development of tourism-related infrastructure for small-budget tourists.

Regardless of the composition of the next government, the CPI(ML) is determined to fight for this charter with all its might. Cast your valuable vote in favour of CPI(ML) candidates and strengthen the CPI(ML) for a better tomorrow in a changing Bihar.