Chief minister Nitish Kumar checks files at Katra in Muzaffarpur on Wednesday. Picture by Gopi Raman

Bandra (Muzaffarpur), Nov. 16: Chief minister Nitish Kumar kicked off the second leg of his Seva Yatra in Muzaffarpur today by directing government officials to expedite work on several ongoing projects in the district.

After the Champaran leg of his much-publicised yatra, the chief minister reached Pilkhi Ghat in Bandra block of Muzaffarpur this afternoon.

With road construction minister Nand Kishore Yadav, water resources minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary and land reforms minister Ramai Ram by his sides, Nitish assessed the ongoing construction of the bridge across the Budhi Gandak in the village. The chief minister was at the site near the Muzaffarpur-Pusa road for 25 minutes and sought to know the progress of the work from road construction department secretary Pratyay Amrit and Bihar State Bridge Construction Corporation chairman Bipin Kumar.

Nitish had laid the foundation of the bridge, based on nine pier shafts, on December 10, 2009. According to the plan, the bridge is supposed to be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 20 crore. Bipin told the CM that work on seven shafts of the under-construction bridge was complete and the remaining work was in full swing.

As the chief minister directed the authorities concerned to accelerate the pace of work, Amrit assured him that the bridge would be completed within the January 31, 2012 deadline. Much to the concern of the officials, Nitish announced to inaugurate the bridge on February 7, 2012.

Political bigwigs, including MPs, MLAs and MLCs from the district, and party workers applauded Nitish’s announcement to inaugurate the bridge in February.

Nitish, then on popular demand, came down from the podium constructed by the state bridge construction corporation and exchanged pleasantries with the residents.

Work done at Bandra block, Nitish’s headed towards his next destination, Katra block, in his copter.

After landing on the grounds of Dhanour High School in Katra, around 50km from Bandra, he inspected the erosion site at Dhanour village and had a look at the work on the embankment of the Bagmati.

The chief minister directed engineers and officials of the Bagmati river project to speed up the project. He said miseries inflicted on residents of Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi and Sheohar districts because of flooding of the Bagmati could be mitigated following completion of the embankment work. After 10 minutes of inspection on ground, Nitish took an aerial view of the ongoing construction.

Later, he proceeded to the Katra block headquarters to review the daily activities of the block officials. Accompanied by divisional commissioner (Tirhut) S.M. Raju and district magistrate Santosh Kumar Mall, Nitish perused through the files related to Indira Awaas Yojana, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and social security and pension schemes. He also talked to officials on the status of the central- and state-sponsored schemes.

Suspension

Chief minister Nitish Kumar today ordered suspension of Katra block circle officer (CO) Sudhir Ranjan Sharma and transfer of block development officer (BDO) Tilakdari Choudhary for gross negligence of work.

Accompanied by Mall, Raju and deputy inspector-general of police (Tirhut) Bacchu Singh Meena, Nitish checked documents at the block headquarters office to find huge numbers of pending applications under Right to Public Service Act. Outside the office, as flood-affected villagers decried the corruption of the CO and BDO Nitish issued the suspension and transfer orders. Later, he proceeded to Gai Ghat block headquarters, around 20km from Katra.