High-voltage drama in Bihar

More than mere lip service, a sense of urgency is required to resolve the power crisis in Bihar

Bihar is reeling under a power crisis. It has the lowest per capita power consumption -- 85 units as against the national average of 715 units -- and the highest peak deficit at 33.7 percent. Bihar's total installed power capacity is 385 MW which is at present producing virtually zero MW and the state is dependent on the central grid for power generation, which supplies 900 to 1,500 MW against the 1,600 MW allocations to the state per day. In fact, only 4% of this power availability is contributed by the state while the rest 96% is drawn from the central sector.
Sadly, only 19,131 of the total of 45,103 villages in the state are electrified. This means that the percentage of villages electrified in the state is less than half of the national average of 86.6 per cent.
But if the energy minister of state Bijendra Prasad Yadav is to be believed, Bihar would have sufficient power by the year 2015-16 as many units including Nabinagar thermal power plant would become operational and renovation of Barauni and Kanti power units would be completed. Besides, the Centre has okayed coal linkages to the proposed Kajra and Pirpainti power plants. The cumulative generation from all these power units would definitely put the state on the power map of India, the minister said.
The energy minister said that by the end of 2012, the power scenario would start improving. The state would also get power from Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh. This apart, the government is planning to construct 200 biomass units for power generation. Besides, 1,400 husk power system units would be set up to provide power to villages. He further mentioned that solar power units with a capacity to 2 HP pump would be provided to farmers so that they could irrigate their farms. The farmers would have to bear only 10% of the cost and the rest would be borne by the state government. The Central government also gives subsidy on such solar units, he added.
This comes as good news for a state that till now has been haunted by prolonged power cuts. The severe power crisis prevailing in the state has resulted in law and order problem with agitated people taking to streets in various parts of the state.

Barring Patna, power is virtually non-existent in the other parts of the state. Big announcements were made. Three Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) were signed amid much hype. Yet people of Bihar are yet to get any relief from the on-going power crisis. "It will take at least five years to implement all such promises," admits a senior government official.
The replacement of burnt power transformers in remote areas continues to be wishful thinking for the villagers. "We do not depend on the power board for replacement of transformers. That has never worked out. Instead, we collect donations from the local people. It’s a do-in-yourself formula," said Prabhat of Siwan district.
Some of the better-known big nursing homes in the state capital have purchased high-capacity generators in view of the large number of patients admitted there. "Now our main investment is on costly generators to run our business," said Akash of Pataliputra Colony.
"We have learnt to live without power in districts. Forget about TV, fridges and coolers. They have become showpieces in our houses," said Nikhil of Madhepura.
Power position in Bihar is very critical and the state is totally dependent on allocation from the Central sector for meeting its power requirement, which is adversely affecting the overall prosperity of the state, including its industrial and agricultural growth.
The essential power requirement to meet the load of railways, defence, industries, grid sub-stations and power houses, is around 300-350 MW.

Sorry figures
Bihar is perhaps the state having the lowest number of power consumers in the country. Out of the total population of around 11.5 crore, there are only 21 lac effective domestic power connections in the state.
"If there are four persons consuming power from each domestic connection, it means number of power consumers in the state is 84 lac, much less than even one crore. In other words, not even 10 percent of the total population of Bihar. Inquiries disclosed there are only 31.1 lac registered and 23.4 lac effective power connections in the state, including non-domestic and connections like irrigation and industrial units," said an official.
Power consumption is one of the parameters of any developed state and it indicates the state is under-developed. There are over 3.25 lac non-domestic power consumers in Bihar. Statistics say there has been no growth of any major or minor industrial units in the state for several years. With almost complete absence of industrial units, the power consumers are restricted primarily to domestic sector only.
In the non-domestic sectors, there are major chunk of consumers who are running flour mills, timber mills, computer centres, beauty parlours, printing press, departmental and garment stores.

So, there are few industrial units consuming power in the state. Statistics say that there are over 82,000 such consumers in the state.
Only six per cent households are electrified in the state as against the national average of 35 per cent. Interestingly, power supply to 10,005 villages in Bihar has been disconnected over the years due to non-payment of bills, theft of materials and natural calamities.
As per the 2001 census, only 5.13 per cent of rural households in Bihar were electrified, which was the lowest in the country. The total number of rural households in Bihar was 1.26 crore.

Vision 2020
Bihar State Electricity Board, in its concept note on power vision 2020, has admitted that the existing per capita consumption of 75 units is expected to grow 10 times by 2012.
Requirement of power by the year 2012 will be 11,500 MW in peak hours and 9,000 MW in off peak hours. It appears that there will be a deficit of 4,400 MW in peak and 1,900 MW in off peak.
The projected demand of power as per the vision 2020 include the peak demand of 15,738 MW and off peak 12,316 MW. There will be a big deficit in available power and the demand by the year 2020. As such for meeting the demand, possibility of taking up many more new projects will have to be explored.
The BSEB roadmap includes commissioning of two major power projects at Nabinagar and Chousa. The Nabinagar project in Aurangabad district with five generation units is being built in collaboration with NTPC and will have an installed capacity to generate 3,300 MW. The Chousa project in Buxar district, being executed by the BSEB, will generate 1,320 MW on its completion.
In addition to this the government is banking on the NTPC-owned Barauni and Kanti thermal power plants which are undergoing modernisation and are together expected to generate over 600 MW. Besides, the government is also concentrating on its small hydro-electricity projects at Balmikinagar, Bathnaha and Arwal, which would together generate around 50 MW of power for the state. Added to that will be NTPC’s 2,000 MW super thermal power project at Barh which is expected to be commissioned within five years and will give its share of power to the state.
However, with a total of 5,000 MW of power, the projected generation may not be enough to meet the 2015 or 2020 demands.
Non-availability of suitable land and adequate water has been proving a bottleneck in setting up new power plants in Bihar.
About 2,200 acres of land was acquired for setting up a 660x2 MW thermal power plant at Chausa in Buxar district. However, villagers had filed a case in the Patna High Court against the acquisition.
Also, the BSEB had to abandon about 3,000 acres of land at Sandesh in Bhojpur district due to non-availability of adequate water. This land was earlier identified for setting up a 2,000-MW power plant as a BSEB-NTPC joint venture.

Other options
The state has in the hydel sector an installed capacity of 55 MW currently and it is hoped that another 20 MW would be added by the end of this year through projects under execution. All these projects are canal based.
The Bihar Hydel Power Corporation (BHPC) is now venturing into another area by planning installation of run of river hydropower plants in the Kosi basin. Already there are three plants with accumulated capacity of 28 MW. These include Bathnaha Phase-1 (8MW) Ararghat (12MW) and Nirmali (8MW).
On the nuclear energy front, Bihar government had requested Nuclear Power Corporation Limited for the installation of 4x700 MW nuclear power project at Rajauli for which a team of experts has already visited for site selection few years back. Approximately 3150 acre of land has been identified at Rajauli for setting up 4x700 MW nuclear power station.
Some young entrepreneurs like Gyanesh Pandey have taken initiatives in generating power through rice husk in remote areas of Bihar. Husk Power Systems (HPS) has already successfully implemented rural electrification (RE) projects in 50 remote, totally off-grid, virgin villages of West Champaran and is set to dramatically expand its footprints in the coming years. HPS is a RE company's unique biomass gasification technology which converts rice husks into electricity, which is not only used for lighting but also for small fans, TVs and radios.

At crossroads

India is in a transition stage, particularly in the area of education. Everyday one hears of ambitious plans, revolutionary changes in the pipeline and visionary decisions being mulled over. There’s a catch though. Reforms and changes are ordered overnight on paper, but it takes a lot of time for the whole system to overhaul its bearings and adjust to these changes. The ensuing result is a confused education system grappling to come to terms with these new stipulations and reforms. Take for example, the decision to take the CAT online. A lot of problems, breakdowns and mess characterised its implementation. Same goes for IITs. Every other day one hears of reform measures being mulled over by the people in charge, pertaining to cut-off marks of plus 2, percentage of weightage given to plus2 marks in the admission process of IITs etc.
Bihar’s case personifies this confusion well. While Bihar is making headlines for better reasons now, there is still a glaring lacuna in the precariously balanced growth act of the state. The state government is vehemently pushing the cause of primary and secondary education, with a slew of progressive schemes whose benefits cannot be denied: scholarship money, fund for school uniforms, free bicycles an so on. The common man, casting his inherent cynicism aside, has grudgingly come to approve and even admire these efforts in the area of school education. Not only have they resulted in higher enrolment rates, these innovative schemes have also raised awareness about the importance of education among the rural masses and deprived sections of society.
But the higher education scenario in the state is still crying out to be bettered. Bihar once used to be a seat of learning with Nalanda and Vikramshila universities attracting students from far and wide. Ironically, that same Bihar does not have a proper system of higher education today. Colleges and universities of the state are generally in the news for all the wrong reasons, be it the impending showdown between Raj Bhawan and the state government or the frequent protests, agitation and hunger strikes by the students and faculty. According to S I Ahson, pro VC of Patna University, it is very unfortunate that the appointment of VCs in Bihar has become mired in controversies. “It is a sad affair that the VCs chair has been dragged into such a controversy. It is our collective responsibility; I cannot blame any specific quarter or individual for failing to uphold the sanctity of this high position,” he adds.
To add to these woes, there is the lackadaisical attitude of the teachers and an acute shortage of well-qualified technical staff. The under-funded laboratories, libraries and classrooms stymie any interest in research studies that students might have shown had things been otherwise. IT infrastructure is virtually non-existent in these colleges and universities, with only a broadband connection to show for (which is down and non-functioning for most of the days in a month) in the name of IT.
“A lot of positive steps have been taken by the state government, like establishment of new institutes and universities. But this is just the initial effort. A lot still needs to be done,” says Ahson. Faculty crunch is a major deterrent to quality education, he points out, and adds, “Patna University is running with less than 50% faculty; of around 1000 sanctioned posts only 400 teachers are on the job.”
Where technical and professional education is concerned, things are as gloomy as ever. While many medical colleges face the threat of de-recognition by the MCI, others are found sadly lacking in infrastructure, surgical equipments and machines. Many of the courses in engineering colleges are yet to be accredited.
Janak Pandey, VC of Central University of Bihar, attributes the constant breakdown in higher education to thoughtless planning. “When the present system does not give satisfactory results, people come up with different ideas. But it’s imperative to note that there’s no makeshift arrangement in education,” he says. According to him, quality faculty and infrastructure are essential components of quality higher education. “Every stage of education is organically related; one cannot separate primary, secondary and higher education as each of these stages define the next one. So it’s time we expanded the scope of our approach to higher education,” he adds.
The government, on its part, has tried to make a beginning in the area of higher education by setting up institutes and universities like Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna and Chanakya National Law University. Both of them, established around two years back, have shown potential and promising results. Other branches and extensions of national-level institutes, like IIT, BIT and NIFT, too have cropped up in Bihar. But then again, the older institutes and universities are in a state of neglect and need focused reforms to break their mould and emerge as assets for the state. The exams in universities are still not regulated, and consequently, subjected to annoying delays even as the campus placement in colleges are negligible. All the universities have been instructed to adopt the semester pattern by the UGC but here too, there are unnecessary delays. The reasons cited for the inability to implement the semester pattern vary from lack of qualified staff to dearth of funds and infrastructure. “We have received UGC’s directives which are aimed at increasing the access to higher education and improving the infrastructure. It has also sent a circular containing the minimum standard for admission into PhD. These directives, though essential for improving the quality of education, require sweeping changes and we are working over them,” Ahson reveals.
Surely, the time has come to repair the fractured higher education system in Bihar. With a deplorable gross enrolment rate (GER), Bihar has an arduous journey uphill to emerge on the national map. “The GER of India is 12%, whereas it stands at 27% for China. But more than these numbers, we need to concentrate on improving the quality of higher education; the numbers would follow automatically,” Pandey says. What is needed, more than paper reforms and cumbersome policies, is undivided attention and relentless effort in chalking out achievable improvements and implementing progressive changes. Like Pandey points out, quality education as well as quality education providers, both are essential for bringing clarity and giving a sense of direction to higher education in the state. With so many maladies plaguing the higher education system in Bihar, the students are truly at a crossroads. It’s time to remove their predicament and show them the right way.

Makings of an industry

If one were to inquire about the industries in Bihar, the first answer they would get is the education industry. This particular industry, which has been a consistent preoccupation of the people of this state, has been thriving irrespective of Bihar’s social and political phenomena and the global meltdown. Bihar boasts of some of the finest schools in the country. But even more important is the coaching niche’ within this gigantic education industry, which has not only withstood the test of time but is still progressing in leaps and bounds. It is indeed an achievement when a particular occupation becomes synonymous with its place of existence; it is an even bigger achievement when that place starts getting known by virtue of that occupation. Coaching business has just earned that place on the pedestal. Bihar is being known for its coaching institutes much more than for anything else.

Once accused by traditionalists for adulterating the sublime profession of teaching, coaching has transformed into a necessity in this fast-growing world. Kota in Rajasthan is an example worth mentioning. Students flocking to Kota for their preparatory studies is no surprise for anyone. In fact, an estimated 30,000 students migrate from Bihar to various coaching destinations, most prominently Kota, for coaching courses. Believed to be the Mecca for students who are serious about their education, Kota has been known for and because of its coaching industry. This industry has also been responsible for the economy boost of that region. Somewhat similar is Bihar’s situation. While every other industry has had its fair share of ups and downs here, education in general and coaching in particular are going strong.

Within the coaching industry too, there have been a lot of improvisations. Newer concepts are being introduced everyday. The courses have moved from short-duration and exam-specific to long-term and comprehensive. ‘Catch them young’ is the latest mantra, and coaching institutes are coming out with novel ways of value enhancement like pre-foundation courses, integrated courses and so on. The duration of preparation has increased from six months to four years and the scope of study now covers medical/engineering entrance preparation to school syllabus and beyond, which include IIT-JEE, AIEEE, AIIMS, CAT and other competitive exams as well as class 9, boards, plus 2, Spoken English, Foreign Languages etc.

Students too opine on this flourishing business in the state. Srishti, a class 10 student of an English-medium school in Patna, cannot imagine life without her tutorial classes that help her with the boards preparation. Similar is the case with most of her friends. Jawed, one of her seniors, wants to qualify in JEE and hence has got enrolled in one of the premier coaching institutes in the city’s Boring Road area. Here he is taught Physics, Chemistry and Maths. “My coaching timing is in the evening on weekdays, and extra hours in the afternoon on weekends, so we do not have to rush with the study schedule. Plus, whatever problems and doubts we have at school, we can easily ask our coaching tutors to clarify them,” says Jawed. This shows how the fine line between schooling and coaching is gradually getting intermingled and subsequently vanishing.

But would it be correct to call this coaching business an industry in Bihar? Views are divided. Coaching is a burgeoning business in the state and going by the current figures, definitely shows the potentiality of an industry. The gamut of services offered, the employment generated, the bucks raked in, and the ever-growing popularity of this vocation, all point to the immense scope of this occupation. According to a survey, Bihar’s coaching market is estimated to be worth hundreds of crores and growing at an estimated 20 per cent. And while coaching as an industry has crossed the Rs 10,000 crore mark in the country, a more than proportional part of it is in Bihar’s kitty.