The suspension of 33 child development project officers (CDPOs) has made social welfare minister Parveen Amanullah believe that she has managed to get rid of corruption from her department. Replying to a question, Parveen said there was corruption in her department before she joined the ministry. But now it was a thing of the past. A few differed, though. She has been a Right to Information (RTI) activist before she plunged into politics. Perhaps she should file a few RTI applications in her own department to know about the level of corruption in her department instead of listening to her officials,” said a JD(U) MLA, claiming that anganwadis continued to remain defunct in his constituency. Officials are not surprised over chief minister Nitish Kumar rebuking 39 JD(U) legislators for not giving a month’s salary to the party fund for green drive. “Recently, he attended a function hosted by the state milk co-operative federation, the makers of Sudha products. One of the success stories of Bihar even during the Lalu-Rabri era, the body claims to make an annual profit of over s 1,000 crore. Nitish quoted the figure and reminded the firm’s managing director Harjaut Kaur that the co-operative body gets all help from the state government and so it should increase its contribution to the chief minister’s relief fund, which presently is just Rs 50,000,” said an officer, insisting that Nitish becomes most “business-minded” when it comes to money. Morning-walkers in the Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park recently found a used condom lying on the walking tracks in the sprawling zoo. “The biological park authorities have been relentless in trying to discourage lovebirds and have even put signboards advising them to resist from making indecent gestures on the park premises. The crowd in the zoo increased in the year-end because the educational institutes were closed. Against this backdrop, someone using a condom in the zoo is strange,” a orning-walker told another. “A group of morning-walkers spent half-an-hour pondering over who could have used the condom. Ultimately it was a waste of time and they returned home without walking,” said a witness.
Complainants can wait, not puja
Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey’s late arrival at the janata darbar at his official residence on Tuesday because of a hawan left several complainants fuming. The darbar was scheduled to begin at 11am sharp. But the minister came 90 minutes later. “The health minister’s employees told us that the sahib was busy in a puja and a hawan was being performed,” said a complainant, recalling that the minister had conducted a hawan on the birth anniversary of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It appears that he is conducting a hawan on a day-to-day basis. The complainant stressed that the minister should have started his prayers 90 minutes earlier so that he could reach the janata darbar on time. The BJP leaders pointed out that while a hawan was conducted for Vajpayee’s long life, the reason for carrying out other hawan is a matter of speculation. “Perhaps, Choubey is praying to god to remain a minister,” said the leader, stressing that Choubey’s performance had been dismal.
