Chief minister Nitish Kumar is going the extra mile to allay bureaucrats' fears that his new administrative instrument, the Bihar Vikas Mission of which his adviser Prashant Kishor is a key part, will sideline them.
Though the government has demarcated the rules for the functioning of the Mission - tasked with helping faster and better delivery on Nitish's seven pre-election promises- and has involved all ministers and principal secretaries, there is still confusion among officials and fears of a turf war once the Mission picks up steam.
Hence Nitish, who is known for being a hard taskmaster, is playing motivator to the bureaucrats.
During the recent meetings to discuss the implementation of his seven resolves, "the chief minister took special pain to clear the confusion on this issue and made it clear that no one would be marginalized in the functioning of the Mission," a senior official who attended the meetings told The Telegraph. "The chief minister told us that we had to play a very important role in implementing the projects."
Another official said that the CM urged them to work wholeheartedly as Bihar aims to achieve in the next five years things it could not in 68 years since Independence.
The challenges, said a principal secretary-rank officer, are not limited to delivering benefits. Some of the resolves would also need strong monitoring.
"The government aims to provide Rs 1,000 monthly unemployment stipend for a period of two years for youths in the age group of 20-25 years," the official cited by way of example. "What if a youth keeps on claiming this stipend even after getting employment in some private company? I think the CM is seized with such points and that is why he wants to motivate the state officials before the actual rollout of the projects. The very magnitude and complexity of the work demands complete support of the state officials."
A Bihar-cadre senior IAS officer, who is on central deputation and who was one of Nitish's most trusted men after he came to power in 2005, said: "Nitish is more a hard taskmaster. Motivating officials is something I never came across while working with him. I remember the 2007 floods when around 20 districts of Bihar had been hit. He never bothered to listen to the problems field officials were facing in distributing the relief and just wanted the benefits delivered at any cost."
The bureaucrats are not willing to judge the chief minister's new drive - as motivator - in haste.
"Motivating officials is good thing but CM would have to speak through his acts while dealing with officials," said former chief secretary V.S. Dubey. "In case officials find that their authority is being eroded or chain of command is being tinkered with, they would not remain motivated for long and it would certainly affect the implementation of the projects."
A principal secretary-rank official echoed Dubey, saying: "We are in wait and watch mode. If the CM starts being guided by his advisers and ignores officials, the motivation he expects from his officials would certainly not be there."
