A change in command has ushered in a strange work culture at Patna Municipal Corporation.

Soon after the suspension of Kuldip Narayan from the post of municipal commissioner, urban development and housing minister Samrat Choudhary is intervening in the nitty-gritty of the daily affairs of the civic agency.

He conducted two review meetings of the civic body over the past two days and another is slated on February 9. The minister has even cancelled the leaves of all the employees at PMC till the pending development schemes are completed.

Mayor Afzal Imam, on the other hand, wants to review the panel of advocates in the next standing committee meeting on Friday. The meeting is likely to be boycotted by Bihar Administrative Services officials, who are up in arms against the mayor and a few ward councillors supporting him, from October 2014 on charges of misbehaviour against them, including female officers.

New municipal commissioner Shrishat Kapil Ashok did not turn up at PMC on Wednesday as he had gone to Sitamarhi for official work of Bihar State Water Board. He is the managing director of the board.

He came to his chamber at the PMC headquarters at Mauryalok on Thursday afternoon and issued an instruction to return all files to the corresponding sections in the civic body and resend them to him after reviewing them.

Officials in the civic body informed that minister Samrat has asked them to start the execution on all the pending schemes under the state-planned head sanctioned before January 31. Sources said it is in this regard that the leaves of all the staffs have been cancelled.

A section of ward councillors, however, alleged that the minister has malafide intentions behind taking up all such schemes in one go.

"The minister wants to siphon off the government money tied with the schemes. Otherwise, how can he claim to commence the door-to-door collection of waste in the city despite tenders are yet to be floated," said Vinay Kumar 'Pappu', a former deputy mayor.

Imam seemed optimistic with the steps being taken by Samrat for expediting development schemes.

"People in the city were suffering for the past two years as no work was being done but the minister has the willingness and positive attitude to do development works. The work culture in PMC is finally being streamlined. We would provide better civic services in all aspects but sanitation is our first priority," said Imam.