PATNA, Feb. 20 -- The Bihar Legislative Council witnessed a flurry of policy announcements on Thursday as ministers outlined steps to strengthen industry, reclaim public land, regulate noisy vehicles and expand child-care support - even as opposition parties staged a noisy protest outside over what they called a failing law-and-order situation. Industries minister Dilip Jaiswal told the House that Bihar's ethanol quota from the Centre would soon be raised. A delegation that included the deputy chief minister and the chief secretary had met Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri only days earlier, and an understanding was reached keeping in view the state's special circumstances. Jaiswal said 11 dedicated ethanol plants are already running under formal central agreements, while another eight have come up without such pacts yet. "No plant in the state will be allowed to shut down," he assured the House while replying to a calling-attention motion by MLC Sachchidanand Rai. The move is being seen as a boost for local sugar and grain-based units at a time when oil marketing companies have been cutting back procurement, leaving installed capacity under-utilised. In a separate development, deputy CM cum home minister Samrat Choudhary promised that a 25-acre plot owned by the Bihar state housing cooperative federation limited near Ashiyana-Digha Road in Patna's Rajiv Nagar and Digha police station areas would be freed of encroachments within the next one to one-and-a-half months. The Patna district magistrate has been given clear instructions, and a measurement team has already been formed. Several members, including MLCs Anil Kumar and Dilip Kumar Singh and half a dozen others, had raised the long-pending grievance. On the social welfare side, minister Madan Sahni informed the council that creche facilities are being rolled out at 1,700 Anganwadi centres. Replying to RJD MLC Urmila Thakur, he said that every centre already ensures proper nutrition and quality early education for children. "We are fully mindful of working mothers and the all-round development of little ones," Sahni noted confidently....