The districts that will soon be part of Vananchal have been Bihar's bread-earner. Most of the revenue generated by its mines, minerals and industries are, even today, being used up in the service of the poorer, northern part of the state. After its separation from Bihar, its people will get to keep their wealth for themselves.

With this, big brother Patna will lose revenue of more than Rs 1500 crore which it was using but not generating. It will have to fend for its poor with very little natural wealth or industry.

At present, undivided Bihar generates a total revenue of Rs 4200 crore per annum. However, given the fact that north Bihar has no major industry, it is unlikely that the truncated state will rake in more than Rs 2000 crore.

Secondly, almost 76 per cent of the nine crore population of Bihar will remain under Patna administration and only 2.18 crore, or 24.22 per cent of the population, will find their homes in the new state of Vananchal. Since revenue generated in the Vananchal districts is much more than that in north Bihar, it follows that the per capita revenue collection of Vananchal will rise by a substantial margin. Out of the 2.18 crore population in the 18 districts of Vananchal - spread over 203 blocks - 60 lakh will be from the schedule tribes and 25 lakh from the schedule castes. Similarly, the literacy rate will be 52 per cent (higher than that of all-India average of 51). Also, the female literacy rate will equal the all-India average of 34 per cent.

Says the state general secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Saryu Rai, who is from south Bihar: "The Vananchal area has been fleeced by north Bihar. The revenue generated by Vananchal area was primarily used to curtail the recurring flood in north Bihar every year. As a result, there has been no developmental activity in the southern part of the state."

No one, either from the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Laloo Prasad Yadav, the Congress or any other party, could contradict the above statement. All the parties are, however, concerned only about the state the truncated Bihar will be in as the entire area remains a virgin land till date, even after over 50 years of the creation of the state. There has hardly been any development work or effort made towards industrialisation, since that was never a priority of any political party in the state.

Since 1942, this will be the fourth time that Bihar will be divided. The three divisions in the past had hardly helped development in the state. "The political will to develop does not exist in Bihar. Politics is a frontrunner and developmental issues were hardly discussed in the 324-member state assembly. With the division, 81 MLAs will now have their own separate assembly Vananchal and Laloo will emerge even stronger in the truncated state. Hope he understands that Bihar needs development badly. However, we have lost all hopes in him. For his political benefits, under-development of the state is ideal," a noted economist of Bihar told The Financial Express on condition of anonymity.

"Demand for an economic package for Bihar is a mere eyewash and political gimmick. Never before in the history of India, even during the division of Punjab, a package was granted by the Centre. A proper planning and good thinking lacks in the governance of Bihar," he added.

The future numero uno coal producing state

With an area of 74,677 square kilometres, Vananchal accounts for 33 per cent of the country's total coal production and will rank first among the states in terms of amount of coal produced. It will become the leading producing state in many other ores and minerals, for example, copper ore (34 per cent of the country's total production), pyrites (58 per cent) and quartzite (87 per cent).

In iron ore (34 per cent of the country's total production), graphite (18 per cent) and quartz & silica sand (17 per cent), among others, it will be the second leading producer.

The new state will also have the distinction of making major contributions in the national production of bauxite (109 million tonnes), copper (156 million tonnes), limestone (658 million tonnes) and granite (581 million tonnes).

Apart from these, the state also produces a fair amount of chromites, magnetite, manganese ore, cobalt, nickel, titanium, uranium, phosphorite, gold, dolomite, etc.

Almost all the major industries in Bihar are in the Vananchal area. The big names among them are Tata Iron & Steel Co, Tata Engineering & Locomotive Co, Tata Timken, Tata Cummins, Tata Yodogawa, Tinplate Co of India, Usha Beltron and ACC in Jamshedpur, Heavy Engineering Corp, Central Coalfields Ltd, Usha Martin and Indian Aluminium Co in Ranchi, Bharat Coking Coal Ltd and Eastern Coalfields Ltd in Dhanbad), Hindustan Copper Ltd in Chaibasa and Bokaro Steel Plant in Bokaro.

Apart from these, there are units of Dabur, La Opala, Fertiliser Corp of India, Bihar Sponge, TRF, etc.

Among the technical support units in the Vananchal area, the major ones are Mecon, SAIL's R&D centre, Central Mining & Planning Development Institute, Central Mines Research Institute, Indian School of Mines, XLRI and Central Fire Research Institute.

In horticulture too Vananchal is well ahead of many other states. A variety of fruits are grown in an area of 76,750 hectares - custard apple (22,000 tonnes), papaya (30,000 tonnes), guava (78,000 tonnes), mango (1,21,000 tonnes), jackfruit (2,71,000 tonnes) and litchi (8,200 tonnes).Vegetables occupy about 99,000 hectares - tomato (2 lakh tonnes), cauliflower (1.5 lakh tonnes), cabbage (1 lakh tonnes), peas (1.1 lakh tonnes), sweet potato (1.2 lakh tonnes), french beans (60,000 tonnes).