Issuing diaries or calendars appears to be a difficult task for the state government departments. A state government undertaking issued tenders for supplying calendars and diaries in the New Year thrice. he payment against a printing contract awarded for the ritualistic New Year cards during the regime of former chief minister Rabri Devi was made after a few years, said an official. A diary recently released by none other than chief minister Nitish Kumar was full of mistakes. Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee remained the Union railway minister in the diary. The portfolios of several other ministers were also wrong. An official pleaded that Nitish had only released the draft copy. “The actual diary will be published without the mistakes,” he said. The JD(U) national president, Sharad Yadav, is rawing flak from within for declaring that his arty would contest in ll the Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh. A Dal LA said: “It takes round Rs 20 lakh to ontest an Assembly seat. Where from would haradji get over Rs 100 crore to fight all the Assembly seats in UP?” Even if the move is to boost the JD(U)'s chances to become a national party, it is too costly, said the legislator. Given the mood of the partymen, it is not surprising that chief minister Nitish Kumar has put the onus of the UP polls on Yadav. “It's not just the money. Even if we raise this sort of funds, we might end up doing what the Congress did n Bihar (in the 2010 Assembly polls). There was a ush among the ticket spirants not for winning in elections but to get he funds allotted to the party candidates,” the LA added. When the NDA government came to power n the state for the econd time, ministers were directed to hold egular janata darbars. But their enthusiasm waned with time. Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi found etitions related to the health and labour departments before him ecently. When Modi asked the complainants to file their pleas at the darbar of the ministers concerned, he was promptly told that their darbars were hardly regular. Modi reportedly rang up both the ministers - Ashwini Kumar Choubey (health) and Janardan Singh Sigriwal (labour) of the BJP - and directed them to hold darbars regularly. State RJD chief Ram Chandra Purbey seems to be fighting a lonely battle in Bihar. Recently, the party staged a dharna in protest against police action in Masaurhi. Apart from Purbey, no other RJD leader bothered to join it. At another meeting of district unit chiefs this month, Purbey was the only senior leader present. Several district unit heads spoke against the “Delhi ke neta(s)”, who do not come to Bihar, in hushed tones. “They meant Lalu Prasad, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Jagdanand Singh. But nobody had the guts to name them,” said a party worker.
Monday, 09 February 2026
