DFID to help Bihar in urban sevices, health

Patna, (Bihar Times): The Department for International Development, Great Britain, on Thursday said it has entered into an MoU with the Bihar government to invest up to 100 million pounds on urban services and health over the next five years in the state.

Reports from New Delhi say the DFID will work in partnership with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to begin its engagement with a governance reform programme in Bihar.

According to Nemat Shafik, DFID’s permanent secretary over the next five years, the UK will invest upto 100 million pounds in Bihar on urban services and health, such as medical care for pregnant women.

The new state level programme of DFID in Bihar will help to bring down under-nutrition and provide better medical access to mothers and their newborn children.It also announced additional aid of Rs 1,200 crore to the second phase of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which plans
to provide useful and relevant education to all children in the age group of six to 14 years by 2010.

She said that the DFID support to the Phase-I of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has been successful in helping millions of children to get into school, raising enrolment to 96 per cent. She claimed that the Abhiyan has brought down the number of uneducated children in the country from 25 million to 7.5 million.

Union Finance Secretary Subba Rao said India was ready to join Britain to work in third world countries, he told a news agency.