Now Bihar turns its gaze: towards its towns!   Patna: the Gandhian quote ‘India lives in its villages’ is now obviously not applicable to the country any more with larger villages acquiring urban characteristics and the small towns turning into neglected slums. This is especially true for Bihar, a society with an inbuilt cultural bias in favour of the rustic. Verily, the towns of Bihar nowhere figured in this village-oriented thinking best represented by Laloo Yadav whose social vision if anything favoured ‘ruralization’ of even the biggest towns in Bihar. The current government’s... 

Bihar does GIS mapping of its major towns to document properties   Patna: according to reports, the state urban development department of the Bihar government is now carrying out geographic information system (GIS) mapping in towns and cities of Bihar.  The move will enable urban local bodies to document the properties in a digitized data bank, leading of course to greater tax collection for the civic bodies. But the benefits to the citizens from this should also be obvious in the context of legal disputes. The main question here however is how the civic bodies are to be enabled to... 

Patna to have 40 km Ganga driveway: from Digha to Fatuha   Patna/New Delhi: according to the latest reports, the finance ministry and Planning Commission have cleared Patna’s 40 km Ganga driveway project, which will cost 2,400 crore. As part of the first phase, the Ganga driveway will cover a 21 km distance from Digha to Didarganj, and the second phase will take the driveway as far as Fatua, a distance of 18 km from Didarganj. The project was forms an integral part of the vision 2021 document for the state and is expected to get environmental clearances soon. Bihar Road Construction...