Bihar growth sees uptrend even without big industry
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of Janata Dal (United), or JD(U), whose alliance government took charge of Bihar in November 2015 — joining hands with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) before breaking up and going with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in July 2017 — has seen a mixed performance in power.
He will have his task cut out as his JD(U)-BJP alliance goes up against the RJD alliance in the state Assembly polls.
The first year of Nitish’s second allliance did not fare too well on growth numbers. However, 2018-19 and 2019-20 yielded much better results.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Sushil Modi tells Business Standard that GDP growth rose despite there not being any major industrialisation in the state.
“No major industry would ever come to the state as we don’t have land to give. This is because the state is land-locked and the land is fertile with small, fragmented holdings. The average holding is less than one hectare,” says Modi. He adds that it is very difficult to acquire land in Bihar. “If we need 20 acres, we have to deal with 20 people.”
Only public sector industries were set up in Bihar, and none of the big private companies came.
“Companies such as ITC and Britannia are trying to set up industries, but there is no land. We accept the fact that it is not possible for Bihar to have large industries,” says Modi.
So far as the revenue position of the state is concerned, the first year of the JD(U)-RJD alliance did well as the owntax revenue (OTR) grew by 23 per cent. However, the next two years — which included one year of the first alliance and a year of the second — saw contraction. Modi says this was because of liquor prohibition that came into effect from April 1, 2016. He said that there was a permanent loss of ~4,500-5,000 crore.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address 12 rallies in Bihar where the three-phase assembly election will begin on October 28.