Brave the chill, reach on time

While secretariat employees are finding it tough to reach office on time and stay back till late evening, the situation of a large number of government employees posted in adjoining areas of Patna is worse. They travel to and from Patna daily. Previously, we took our time and used to reach office after 12 noon. But now we have to reach office before 9.30am. I start from my home at least two hours in advance so that I am sure to reach on time,” said a government employee posted in Hajipur. However, he is one of the lucky few. Some of them posted further away have to start at 6am or even before. “It is cold, dark and my family sleeps as I have to brave the morning chill,” said a government employee posted in Ara.

Darbar cancelled

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi has been known to be media-savvy and always willing to meet people. However, on Tuesday he cancelled his janata darbar on the pretext of the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. However, political circles feel that Modi wants to avoid people for the moment. Modi is facing severe criticism in the murder case of BJP MLA Rajkishore Keshari for dubbing Rupam Pathak a blackmailer.

Yes minister

A minister, in his second tenure now, is learning the “rules of executive” by heart. “During my first tenure the officials got me to sign documents which I was not supposed to do. It landed me in embarrassing situations several times. This time I took the rulebook and went through it. This time, the officials cannot fool me,” said the minister. However, most ministers tend to sign on the dotted line on files given by their officials. A minister in the Lalu-era faced a vigilance case because he had signed a file approving the recognition of an educational institute. “The file could have been cleared without my signature. But officials kept on sending all the files,” mourned the former minister. It sounds like Yes Minister — the popular BBC television serial.

Questionable panels

Every time the Congress forms a party panel, it becomes a joke. Former state party chief Anil Sharma, during his tenure, had released the list of Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee office-bearers. The party was embarrassed when the list was released to the media. In the list, alongside the names of the leaders selected, their castes were also mentioned. Later, Sharma said the list had been released by mistake and they were actually for “internal use”. His successor, Mehboob Ali Quaiser, has recently formed a disciplinary committee under former MP Chandan Bagchi. A Congress leader, Khalil Ansari, has been included in the panel. “The only problem is that a written complaint has been submitted by a Congress candidate against Ansari, stating the latter had worked against him during the Assembly polls. But perhaps there are very few leaders in the party who have not indulged in dissent and broken the party discipline,” said a senior party leader.