Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi at the review meet at Ambedkar Auditorium in Darbhanga on Sunday. Picture by Mukesh Kumar Jha

Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi drew flak during a division-level review meeting on Sunday when a BJP MLA reminded him it was not a meeting of his party workers.

Manjhi had begun discussing problems faced by party workers in the area and was issuing instructions to officials concerned at Ambedkar Auditorium, when BJP MLA from Hayaghat, Amarnath Gami, interrupted to say this was a review meeting of the division and not of his party workers.

Manjhi asked Gami to leave the meeting. Gami left but soon rejoined on the intervention of some JDU MLAs, namely Lalit Yadav from Darbhanga (rural) and Rishi Mishra from Jalley.

Gami later told The Telegraph: “Chief minister Manjhi started a meeting of party workers where public representatives and administration officials were present. He began listening to their woes and instructing officials concerned to take them seriously. When I protested, saying this was a review meeting where developmental issues should be taken up, he overlooked my concerns. I left the meeting, but in the meantime some MLAs intervened and I returned to the meeting.”

He added: “I had raised the issue of Raiyam and Sakari sugar mills from where scrap was being pilfered away on a large scale. This needs to be investigated. There were no union of workers at these mills unlike Ashok Paper Mill where workers kept on protesting and raising their voice against similar pilferage of scrap. Former chief minister Nitish Kumar never conducted a review meeting here. So, Nitish was not clued in on the problems faced by party workers here. But Manjhi was hearing them out today.”

According to sources, before the meeting, minister in charge of Darbhanga district, Vaidnath Sahni, raised some matters of public concern.

These had to do with problems at Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), public distribution system and traffic problems in the town. “If a minister himself is not satisfied with administrative functioning, what can the public expect from the government? If a minister is complaining against officers, imagine how work is carried out here,” said an MLA to The Telegraph on condition of anonymity.

The chief minister instructed officials concerned to take proper action and solve problems at DMCH and those related to public distribution system and traffic in the town. These issues apart, the review meeting was like any other review meeting. All district magistrates, superintendents of police and other officials apart from public representatives from Darbhanga, Samastipur and Madhubani were present at the meeting.