Nitish’s curse fails to make impact on Cong

Cursing the Centre (read the Congress) for rejecting the demands of his government, chief minister Nitish Kumar said the Union government would have to face the anger of the people of Bihar. But it hardly had any impact on the Congress leaders. The curse will be ineffective, at least in Bihar,” said a senior Congress leader, declaring that the Congress had hardly anything to lose in Bihar with just four of the 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly. “The only thing Nitish can do is bring the number to zero. We are already very close to that,” he said. The Congress’s fortunes in Bihar changed big time in the past two decades. From the ruling party just before 1990 having an overwhelming majority, it became a marginalised force in 1995. In 2011, it is a minor player. Its seats in the Assembly dropped from 170 plus to just four over the years. “The downslide started much before Nitish’s curse,” the senior Congress leader added.

First deserve, then demand

Just the Centre should not be blamed for not upgrading Patna University into a central university. Its laggard officials are also equally responsible for it. An mployee in the state secretariat was infuriated when he found the name of the varsity wrongly spelt in he admit card issued to one of his kin. It read “Patan University” instead of “Patna University”. “The university officials do not even know how to spell its name or are too casual about going through their routine jobs. Yet they spire to become employees of a central university. irst they should learn to do their jobs properly,” e said in anger, pointing out that his kin would be unnecessarily hassled n changing the name rom “Patan” to “Patna” because it could effect his career if he attaches the admit card for admission outside the Patna niversity.

Hearing hiatus

A senior minister was angry over one of is assistants for not issuing a press note in accordance to what he ad said. “You have missed a very important point. Don’t you pay attention to what I am saying?” asked the angry minister. To escape the wrath, the assistant pleaded that he had hearing problem. “Since hen, the minister has been yelling when he is dictating anything to me. He has also been insisting that I get myself checked by a doctor,” said the assistant, finding himself in a tight spot in his attempt to wriggle out of the lie.

Employees’ pleas bug minister

Pleas ranging from promotion in service to permanent service from the education department employees have been flooding the janata darbars. An employee of a private college in Gaya, who is fighting a legal battle with the college authorities, visited one of the darbars recently. Hearing his problem, the state human resource development (HRD) minister P.K. Shahi got furious. He said: “We have been receiving such pleas regularly. If we start resolving such problems the day is not far when we will have to lock our department as all officials and employees of the HRD would have to run to courts to solve legal problems of employees and teachers of the government and private colleges.”