— Photo: Ranjeet Kumar

EXPLAINING HIS VISION: President A.P.J Abdul Kalam addressess a joint session of Bihar legislature in Patna on Tuesday, as Governor (in-charge) Gopalkrishna Gandhi looks on.

PATNA: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Tuesday outlined 10 missions to make Bihar a developed State by 2015.

Addressing a joint session of the Legislature here, he presented his 70-page blueprint in the form of "Missions for Bihar's Prosperity".

It was more than an address. It was something of a crash course for the members. With visual depictions, he stressed that it was possible to put the State back on the rails and develop it so that the nation achieved its mission 2020.

Call to legislators

Quoting Maharshi Patanjali (500 BC), Mr. Kalam urged the members to ask themselves: "What will I be remembered for?" His answer was they should make themselves partners in making the State economically prosperous, happy and safe.

Mr. Kalam's thrust was on giving an impetus to agriculture and the agro food-processing sector. He lined up help from South Korea and was confident that it would make Bihar the rice bowl of the country in the near future.

His objective was to raise the per capita income from Rs. 6,500 to Rs. 35,000 a year by 2010 and to Rs. 1 lakh by 2015 and to increase literacy from 45 to 75 per cent by the end of the decade and to 100 per cent in a decade. The emphasis should be on reducing the percentage of people below the poverty line from 42 to 20 by 2010 and to zero by 2015.

Mr. Kalam called upon the legislators to make the environment conducive to the implementation of his mission and contribute to the development of the State. Artificial barriers such as politics, religion, region and caste should not come in the way of the mission. Emphasising empowerment of women, a proper health care system and a flood control system, the President said the most important thing was to have a good management structure in place for planning and accomplishing all missions.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar assured the President that all parties were united on the issue of development and that the State would become developed at the end of 2015.

He also promised to maintain smooth relations with the Centre, acknowledging that without good working relations between the Centre and the State it would not be possible to implement the blueprint.

Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Assembly Speaker Udai Narain Chaudhary, Legislative Council Chairman Jabir Hussain and Leader of the Opposition Rabri Devi were present.

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