Another side of Shahabuddin’s untold story

The name of Mohammad Shahabuddin, two-time MLA from Jiradei constituency and four-time MP from Siwan, is a synonym to terror and crime in media. But he has another facet to his personality, hardly known to the world.

In the capacity of an MP, he stood unmatched. He was among rare MPs who spent the whole of MP LAD (Local Area Development) fund in his constituency. His development agenda covered many areas, with prime focus on Education and Health.

He established Islamia Educational and Social Welfare Trust.  The trust took up major projects for educational and social welfare development. It got registered 300 acres of land for a minority character university. He dreamed of having all the major faculties and departments in the campus such as Law, Engineering, Medicine, and Mass Communication and so on. Presently, Engineering College along with other colleges and courses are running smoothly. To raise fund for the cause, he traveled to different states of India and abroad. He had managed enough of the fund to establish the university, on a personal level.

He had targeted 2006 for the university to come in full swing, but unfortunately, his long-term journey of jail started in 2005, and since then, the larger project came to a halt.

To ensure that the schools and colleges have proper infrastructure and an academic environment, he used his MP LAD fund to good effect. I remember the dilapidated building of Vidya Bhavan Women College, which the MP transformed into a huge building. He ensured that the teachers were present regularly at the schools and tried to improve the educational standards. Irregular and irresponsible staffs either mended ways or got transferred out of Siwan. It was a time when using unfair means in exams in Bihar were common practices. It was only in Siwan that no malpractice was allowed in exams, therefore, non-serious students moved to other districts to get good marks. In exam days, the MP used to visit exam centers on regular basis to ensure fair means practiced.

  

The health sector was given equal importance. ‘HAMARA PRAYAS’, an NGO, funded by the trust worked effectively in the district in the area such as cultural development and healthcare.  The MP then fixed the upper limit of doctors' consultancy fees at Rs. 50 and 70 respectively. The move was widely welcomed and it benefitted the poor immensely.  Besides, the doctors treated the poor on all important festivals for free. With the help of local businessmen, the health committee managed generators and provided regular power supply to the hospitals, which was needed much due to huge electricity crisis across Bihar.

To the surprise of many, Mohammad Shahabuddin is a voracious reader too. He loves to read books on different issues, especially history books. He was awarded the doctorate degree on his thesis ‘First Coalition Government’ from Muzaffarpur University, Bihar. To launch a newspaper was also in pipeline.

This is one of the aspects Mohammad Shahabuddin will be ever remembered and cherished by people of Siwan.