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The homicide of businessman Gopal Khemka within the coronary heart of Patna final week has introduced again the deal with regulation and order within the metropolis and whoever can guarantee that may win later this 12 months
Almost 20 kilometres lengthy and constructed at a value of Rs 5,000 crore, Ganga Bridge is India’s longest cable-stayed bridge. (News18)
It’s certainly a ‘Badalta Hua Patna’—from a brand new swanky airport to India’s longest cable-stayed bridge over the Ganga, and a fast-upcoming metro. These are modifications in Patna that few had imagined even a decade in the past. However because the latest homicide of a businessman within the coronary heart of Patna reveals, some issues might not have modified. Regulation and order are nonetheless the elephant within the room in terms of the upcoming Bihar elections.
A brand new airport terminal greets one now on touchdown in Patna. It’s a far cry from the cramped and untidy airport that Patna had for years. The brand new terminal inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi final month is value Rs 1,200 crore, boasts of recent aerobridges and fashionable passenger services and might cater to about one crore passengers a 12 months. For a mean Bihari, the airport is a nice shock and a logo of delight. “Delhi wale se bhi achha hai na (this is better than the Delhi airport, right),” a Patna couple asks us.
Bridge After Many years
Our second cease was the brand new Ganga bridge that was inaugurated final month by CM Nitish Kumar. That is no abnormal bridge. Almost 20 kilometres lengthy and constructed at a value of Rs 5,000 crore, it’s India’s longest cable-stayed bridge. The primary six-km stretch which is operational now could be the only connectivity from Patna to Raghopur, the stronghold of the Lalu Prasad household. Former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav is the present MLA from Raghopur, and his dad and mom Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi have represented the seat too within the meeting.
However for over the past seven a long time, one needed to take a ship on the Ganga to succeed in Raghopur as there was no bridge over the river to succeed in the realm. Tejashwi Yadav himself took the boat many a instances to spotlight the apathy being confronted by locals. However the brand new bridge is now a actuality, and locals see it as an enormous reward. Many throng right here within the night to take selfies. “Roads and bridges have been made. But nothing else. Voting does not happen on issue of development, but caste. We will vote for RJD,” two native kids on the bridge say.
Metro and Flyovers
The ‘Ganga Kinare’ ring highway in Patna is an extended drive in addition to the Ganga and offers one a glimpse over the varied bridges revamped the huge river. Inside the town additionally, a community of flyovers and a serious hospital has emerged. The large spotlight is the upcoming Metro and a six-km stretch is anticipated to be inaugurated by August 15 by the prime minister. Work is on at frantic tempo in Patna to finish the metro stretch. However which means that inner roads in Patna are a multitude—dug-up and relentless rains make them waterlogged.
“The main roads of Patna are smooth but go a bit inside and you will find the mess. Two days back, I fell with my scooty inside an open manhole on a water-logged road…of what use is such development?” a teenager having Bihar’s well-known litti-chokha on Budh highway says. One other native says that whereas infrastructure has improved in Patna, issues are just about the identical in villages. “Bihar is not just Patna. It is a very big state. If you go inside the villages, you will see the poor suffer,” one other native says.
A gaggle of elders in Patna, nonetheless, advised CNN-NEWS18 that electrical energy and water has modified the fortune of rural Bihar. “Ab toh hamare yahan gai bhi pankhe mein so rahi hai (even our cows are sleeping under a fan in villages),” a neighborhood elder advised us. This group stated Nitish Kumar stays a preferred chief minister regardless of him altering political camps many a time. They level to the jungle-raj beneath the Lalu Prasad regime to say Bihar gained’t ever return to the previous ages. “Saanp ka beta sapola hi hota hai,” they stated on the Lalu household.
Homicide in Patna
The homicide of businessman Gopal Khemka within the coronary heart of Patna final week has, nonetheless, put the NDA on the again foot. The homicide appears to have been orchestrated from inside Beur jail by a gangster, bringing Bihar’s notorious jail-crime-supari (contract killing) nexus to the fore but once more. The opposition, RJD and Congress, at the moment are focusing on the NDA authorities over the failing regulation and order scenario, even in a complicated space of Patna. They’re sarcastically asking if that is jungle-raj beneath Nitish Kumar and countering NDA’s narrative.
NDA ally Chirag Paswan additionally expressed his discomfort over the law-and-order scenario. “If a murder like this is happening in Patna, imagine what is happening in the villages. The way crime has increased in Bihar and the manner in which law and order has collapsed is concerning,” Paswan stated.
The underside line in Bihar is that it’s a battle between two massive alliances based mostly on caste concerns and growth is a powerful narrative working for the NDA. However crime, regulation, and order stay the massive elephant within the room. Folks need peace and safety first. Whoever can guarantee that may win later this 12 months.
Aman Sharma, Government Editor – Nationwide Affairs at CNN-News18, and Bureau Chief at News18 in Delhi, has over twenty years of expertise in overlaying the large spectrum of politics and the Prime Minister’s Workplace….Learn Extra
Aman Sharma, Government Editor – Nationwide Affairs at CNN-News18, and Bureau Chief at News18 in Delhi, has over twenty years of expertise in overlaying the large spectrum of politics and the Prime Minister’s Workplace…. Learn Extra
