By Soroor Ahmed
Contrary to the lies and half-truths being repeatedly spread by leaders of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, Kishanganj district registered fastest growth in literacy in India between 2001 and 2011. Instead of the Muslim-dominated Kishanganj it is Hindu-dominated Sheohar which is the least developed district of Bihar on this and several other counts.
Against the claim made on Oct 31 by the state AIMIM chief Akhtar-ul-Iman and recently-elected MLA Qamar-ul-Hoda Kishanganj does not stand at the bottom of all the social,economic and educational indices. In fact in most of the cases Sheohar, Madhepura, Araria, Supaul and Purnea occupy last positions. This can be cross-checked by the data given in the latest Census and Bihar Economic Survey 2018-19.
While the literacy rate of Kishanganj was 55.46 per cent in 2011––it jumped from 31.09 percent in the previous Census–– Sheohar has the figure of 53.78 per cent in comparison to 37 per cent in Census 2001.
The female literacy of Kishanganj jumped from 18.63 to 46.76 per cent.
This is a huge achievement yet a perception is being created that things are very bad in this district. Madhepura, Sheohar and Supaul, according to Bihar Economic Survey 2018-19 have lowest per capita income. Patna, Munger and Begusarai are the top three.
However, the three districts with highest multi-dimensional poverty index are Araria, Madhepura and Kishanganj.
Kishanganj occupies 28th position against 38 and the last by Sheohar so far as per capita Gross District Domestic Product is concerned. The figure for Kishanganj is Rs 9928 while of Sheohar is Rs 7092.
While addressing the media on Oct 31 after Qamarul Hoda took oath as MLA in Bihar Assembly, Akhtar claimed that Kishanganj is among the worst flood-affected districts of the state. The truth is just the contrary. Of all the trans-Ganga north Bihar districts Kishanganj is the least affected by flood, though it is also true that some parts of its southern half have some problem of flooding. But it is of no match to the perennial problem faced by Supaul, Araria, Madhepura, Saharsa, Katihar, Khagaria, Purnea, Begusarai, Darbhanga etc.
As Kishanganj is very close to Darjeeling district of North Bengal it has a sloppy plain and thus the land is very suitable for the production of tea, wheat and pine-apple.
Though Kishanganj is about 400 km from Bihar’s capital it enjoys rare advantage over all the 38 districts of the state––barring Patna and Gaya.
A person can catch a train to reach any city of India from here––be it Ernakulam, Bangalore, Mumbai, Amritsar etc. All the trains from North-East are bound to pass through Kishanganj and stop here. This includes Rajdhanis too.
The East-West Corridor from Porbandar in Gujarat to Silchar in Assam passes through Kishanganj.
The international airport at Bagdogra in Siliguri sub-division of Darjeeling is only 89-km from here. Thus Kishanganj, against the general impression, has a very high mobility and people from this place can be found anywhere in India and abroad.
Kishanganj is also known for once famous Insaan School and has hundreds of madrasas. There is a private medical college here as well as one in neighbouring Katihar district. The Bihar government has recently opened an agriculture university and there is a campus of Aligarh Muslim University too. However, the latter has run into trouble after the coming to power of the Modi government in 2014. But this story also holds true to Nalanda University, a brainchild of former President A P J Abdul Kalam.
In contrast Sheohar has no good educational institution. Though it is less than half the distance from Patna one has to spend almost the same number of hours to reach there in comparison to Kishanganj as there is no rail route there.
No doubt, Kishanganj has its own quota of problems. Though earning from remittance has changed the situation somewhat, poverty is palpable here, especially in rural areas.
But this problem is not only confined to Kishanganj. Historians are of the view that north-east districts of Bihar, and erstwhile united Bengal, having substantial Muslim population, has been deliberately neglected by the British rulers ever since the Battle of Plassey in 1757. So one cannot overlook this historic fact while making any study of Seemanchal belt of Bihar.
However, since the AIMIM has to expand its influence in the region its leaders are resorting to all sorts of fabricated and outdated data to highlight the problem of the people and win votes. This is a dangerous trend as there is no denying the fact that Kishanganj is much better placed than several other districts of Bihar with overwhelmingly Hindu population. The need of the hour is to expose the political designs of AIMIM and nip in the bud its false ambition.
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(The views are personal )
