Minister of animal husbandry and fisheries Giriraj Singh at the janata darbar in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, May 25: Visitors at animal husbandry and fisheries resource minister Giriraj Singh’s janata darbar often call up the official they think can solve their problem from their mobiles and hand over the phone to the minister.

Singh, naturally, is very displeased with this trend. When Naval Ram, a resident of Nawada district, did that at Singh’s janata darbar at the BJP office on Beer Chand Patel Path today, the minister lost his cool.

“What is this? Why did you call from your mobile? How can you just hand over the phone to me without informing me earlier? I don’t even know whom I am talking to. Don’t you have any sense? I am a minister. I cannot just speak to anyone. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to speak to a person without even informing him? What will the person think about me? He will think that I must have told you to call him from your cell phone,” said the infuriated minister.

Sources said when Naval gave him the phone, Singh was taken aback, and spoke for a few minutes before hanging up. Singh added: “You have done this earlier as well. I told you not to do it. In spite of that you did it again today. I do not like such things. This is a final warning. Don’t do it again. I felt like throwing your phone out of the window when you handed it to me.”

When asked why he took the initiative to call the senior government official from his mobile, Naval told The Telegraph: “I thought the minister did not know the number of the official. So, I called up.”

This is not the first time that the minister has faced such a problem. Earlier, too, visitors at his janata darbar have taken the liberty of calling up officials from their personal mobiles and then giving the phone to the minister.

Singh told The Telegraph: “There is a proper channel to forward any grievance. I have my secretary over here. He is responsible for making the call to the officials concerned. That is his job, not of the applicant. Despite knowing this, visitors at the darbar just call from their mobiles and hand over the phone to me. This is uncalled for. As a minister, I should know whom I am talking to. I know who can solve the problem,” said the minister. Naval’s plea was regarding re-counting for panchayat elections in his village.

“His problem could only be solved by the district magistrate (DM). So I called up the DM and spoke to him,” said Singh.

He added: “I don’t know what’s wrong with the people visiting the darbar. They are completely unaware of the proper channel. A few days back, one of my party workers called me and said that his car has been confiscated by the traffic police. He called me from the spot and handed over the phone to the police officer. Now, you tell me, is this the way to speak to anyone? There is an urgent need to understand this problem.”