A number of welfare schemes first tried out by Nitish Kumar’s government in Bihar have been taken up by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre for nationwide implementation, drawing the attention of policymakers in Delhi. The most recent example is the Centre’s Nal Se Jal scheme for piped water, which was modelled on Bihar’s Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal programme.

From Bihar to the Centre

Before that, Bihar’s Har Ghar Bijli Yojana, launched in November 2016 to give electricity connections to more than 5 million households, became the blueprint for the Union government’s Rs 16,320-crore Saubhagya scheme, which aims to connect over 40 million families in rural and urban areas.

A Union government official, speaking anonymously, said good schemes deserved to be copied regardless of where they began, and confirmed that both Bihar programmes had been studied and adopted by the Centre. A senior Bihar official, also unnamed, welcomed the Centre’s decision to follow the state’s approach.

Bihar’s water programme aims to supply clean drinking water to about two crore households and end their reliance on hand-pumps. Both power and water are central commitments of Kumar’s ‘Saat Nischay’, or ‘7 Points’, programme. After the BJP-JD(U) combine defeated the Mahagatbandhan in the state at the recent Lok Sabha polls, voters often cited the need to reward good governance in these areas.

The national picture

Presenting the budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the new Jal Shakti Ministry would work with states so that every rural home has piped water by 2024. Brokerage JM Financial estimates that Nal Se Jal will require investment of Rs 6.3 lakh crore.

All 39,073 revenue villages in Bihar were electrified by December 2017, ahead of the electrification of all 597,464 census villages in India in April 2018. Pratyaya Amrit, Bihar’s principal secretary for energy, has said a national workshop held in Patna on 8 and 9 August 2017 drew delegates from 16 states. The state now reports about 20 hours of average power supply.

Water remains a serious concern. A NITI Aayog report says nearly 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress, 75 percent of households lack drinking water on their premises and about 2 lakh people die each year for want of safe water. It warns that 21 cities could exhaust their groundwater by 2020, with 100 million people affected.

See also: Janata Dal (United)

Originally published on 3 August 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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