Dr. Sudhir Ranjan,
Industrial Technology Research Institute
Hsinchu, Taiwan
ranjan@itri.org.tw

On November 22nd, 2005, with Bihar having a new government , a perceptible change in attitude of non-Biharis towards Bihar across the globe has been visible. Now for developed and healthy Bihar, it is not easy to fight against the character , ideology and culture of chaos and disorder that has been deeply embedded into our society since long. Nevertheless several steps taken in one month by Chief Minister Shri Nitish Kumar has made it clear about his ambition for new government that will deliver the needed immediate relief to commoners by providing good governance.
It is so ironical that RJD who gave voice to rural poor has become a symbol of sympathizers of corrupt and criminals only. Instead of rediscovering itself, and to help make Bihar vibrant, RJD is still engaged in petty politics as if they do not believe in vote vs development.

Present regime in Bihar needs to chalk out long term Strategy for Bihar spread over a quarter of a country in a phased manner so that it could lay the foundation for unidirectional development for whatever political party comes in power. There are areas where the time demands immediate attention. The first & foremost area is urbanization of Bihar.It should be given top priority.

December 03, 2005 was the day of deliverance in the History of India, when Prime Minister Hon'ble Shri ManMohan Singh launched much-awaited Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission to improve urban infrastructures and to provide urban services to poor. Although the mission itself sounds astounding, it should have been selectively included with the aim of providing urban facilities to rural poor. National average of urbanization is 27.8 % while Bihar stood second from the bottom. at 10.47% as per report (in 2001). According to Urban Development Minister, Shri Ashwani K. Chaube, Bihar is seeking a 10,000 crores package for its ambitious agenda for urbanization including Marine drive like road on the bank of Ganga, and a Metro train at Patna. This is a welcome move. But at the same time, the new Government needs to know that before making any new promises in public, home work must be done for project's feasibility otherwise it will be considered a rhetoric of over enthusiasm.
Historically, the concept of urbanization has been closely connected with industrialization. Law of economics says that as a country's industrialization pushes forwards, rural labor migrates to urban areas. To farmers & rural labor, the real meaning of urbanization is settling down in cities. Their link to the land must be severed and they should become an integral part of urban communities. But the majority of rural poor working in the cities do not stay long, and many farmers-turned-workers also return to their homes. These farmers coming to the cities to work are starkly different in nature to the notion of the urbanization of the rural population.
The lack of enough farmland for burgeoning rural populations forced them to leave the village and migrate to cities. They find a place to live in the cities, but often they do not find productive employments. They are like migratory birds flying back home especially during festivals, a traditional time for family (one unit: husband, wife and children) reunion. Moreover it is observed that farmers-turned-workers (skilled and unskilled professional too) spend the best years of their lives contributing to the cities while they leave their unproductive years to be supported by their rural hometowns. That is why population in rural areas are continued to rise. In comparison to Bihar's population, meager number of rural poor has migrated to different urban centers of other states. Migration to outside Bihar can only be achieved by the process of urbanization. Lack of this process has led to violence in rural areas over the years due to continually decreasing agriculture land.
Bihar's urbanization requires farmers/rural labor to move to cities and finally settle down there. Currently it is a mission impossible due to non-existence of industry and a negative business growth. What is needed now is to identify strategic urban centers. This will allow entrepreneurial people with relatively good educational backgrounds to launch their own businesses or become high-caliber professionals and managers in various sectors. Such rural people may well settle down in the cities, where the population is dependent upon its "hinterlands" to provide it with food and its product. Thus it will further boost economy of our agricultural society. Eventually, there may emerge a large number of prosperous small towns in rural areas, which will demonstrate the progress of Bihar's urbanization process.

In today's world, cities are the virtual face of development. A rational pattern exemplifying city construction of different sizes should be sought. Big cities should be built with investment attracted; new enterprises be launched giving rise to developed secondary and tertiary industries. Professional cities,both small and medium-sized,should focus on commercial business. Small towns should serve to offer jobs to rural surplus labor and promote economic and social development of the rural areas as a whole.

Patna, Bihar's largest city does not look like more than an urbanized village. Its infrastructure can only be improved if government has strong determination. Considering the demographical problem persisting across Patna, the state capital should be relocated from the heart of the city to place like Rajgir or Vaishali. And the prime land should be used to develop as central business district of international standard comprising of number of skylines to be built in future in coming 30 years. Shifting capital to those places will boost the process of transforming Patna into one of the megapolitan cities of India. The other strategic urban centers must be identified. Raxaul, Katihar, Bhagalpur, Dehri-on-sone and Siwan can also be considered to develop as cities of future. The straight corridor of three big cities such as Gaya, Patna and Muzaffarpur must be connected with free (express) way in first phase by 2010 and later extended to Raxaul in second phase. Considering our present economic standard of large population, the expressway should be divided into fast and slow moving lanes in order to smoothen the transportation system. To achieve this, chaos and disorder on the roads inside cities of Bihar must be removed in the span of a year; a regular traffic system should be placed in order. For this radio and TV channels should be used where Minister and Chief minister should be heard and shown pleading people of Bihar to maintain order every day in such a way that it overwhelms the current mindset of people of Bihar in positive direction. Efforts must be made at minister's level to break the vicious habits for disrespect for the law as well as for the order.