“What Bihar thought yesterday, India thinks today”. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his government has already achieved several of the aspects of the ‘Digital India campaign’ launched on Wednesday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with fanfare.

One can say that Nitish Kumar is leaving no stone unturned to match or even surpass Narendra Modi’s dream of Digital India.

Bihar already has the longest stretch of free public Wi-Fi service at Patna, the state capital, thanks to the vision of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. It is 18 kilometres long and being used regularly.

Bihar State Electronic Development Corporation Limited (Beltron), an executive wing of the state information technology department, created a total of 80 access points for “Free Wi-Fi zone of Patna” between National Institute of Technology, Patna, on Ashok Rajpath and Saguna Mor on the western end of Bailey Road between February and June last year. The 18km Wi-Fi network is now being used by over 3,000 people everyday.

It is said that no other state or city in India has such a long stretch of public Wi-Fi facility. Most public Wi-Fi services are limited to either institutions like colleges or public facilities such as airports.

It is also stated that Patna has one of the most advanced city surveillance systems in the country. 153 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras have been installed across the state capital. The CCTV cameras are connected with the “Dial 100” police response service and monitored from a state-of-the-art control room equipped with large screens.

Bihar has e-PDS, where 400 PDS shops across the state are connected via the internet. Various details – supply, availability and sale of stocks – at each shop can be monitored in this way.

Several departments have state of the art computerised reporting systems, such as the Bihar Education project, which have received accolades nationally and internationally for an efficient digital records maintenance. Commercial taxes and treasury departments of the Bihar government have achieved total computerisation.

However, it may be mentioned here that the websites of several state government departments are not kept up-to-date. The launch is usually done with fanfare, but after a time, the maintenance drops off. In some cases, the contracts of those who set up the sites have not been renewed, and in others, there has been no budgetary provision for the maintenance and upkeep of the sites, iit is learnt.

Bihar too will celebrate India Digital week in a big way.

In addition to the programmes of the Union government, the Bihar government is also organising several events on its own for “Digital India Week”.

“We have organised a completion on web page development and another on mobile app development. An inter-departmental Digital India consultation meeting, suggested by the Government of India, will be held in Patna. An e-waste management training programme is on July 4 through Bihar State Pollution Control Board,” said Siddhartha.

Siddhartha added that Bihar is supporting the Centre’s “Online Cyber Wellness Challenge” during Digital India week. School-going students can participate in the cyber wellness challenge by logging on to digitalindiaquiz.gov.in.

  Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, development, Digital india