All those who accuse the present regime in Bihar of being inefficient and inactive, should just come out and go for a few hours’ drive to Raghopur in Vaishali district in Bihar.

Till a few years ago, like most other blocks, Raghopur remained a nondescript and underdeveloped area. Lady luck was expected to smile on this place when Rabri Devi became the chief minister in 1997 and eventually chose Raghopur as her Assembly constituency. However, the area’s fate remained unchanged.

For nearly eight years of Rabri’s rule, there was neither road, nor power nor water as well. In fact, the condition of the road leading to Raghopur was so pathetic that one ran the risk of developing back problems while traversing through the 20 ft-wide highway. Any talk of electricity then was treated as a joke. But all this was till 2005.

Today, roads are being widened on a war-footing. Hordes of dumpers, frog machines, JCB machines and heaps of boulders have become the prime attraction for the inhabitants of this sleepy hamlet. “By next year, Raghopur will have a new look,” averred Suraj Paswan, a local, who also felt that the place, in the days to come, will lead by example on how an opponent’s ‘domain’ could be developed. “Nowadays, development cannot take a backseat simply in the name of political rivalry,” he added.

Vaishali is also on the Power Ministry’s radar and work has begun under the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Programme. Efforts are being made to familiarise people with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, that is still in embryonic stage. “For this, some credit should also go to Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, the RJD MP from Vaishali,” a septuagenarian, Ramkishan Yadav told Deccan Herald.