Ranchi, June 22: When an 83-year-old man named Niranjan Prasad Singh came before the state labour and employment minister Raj Paliwar with a bundle of papers during today's janata durbar, the minister initially thought the old man might have a pension related problem to narrate.
But, when Singh introduced himself as a four-times Congress MLA who was first elected from then Chauparan Assembly constituency in 1967, and told Paliwar he had come to complain about the bad state of a Hazaribagh road, Paliwar was impressed.
Singh, who retired from active politics in 1990 when he was representing Barhi, said he had been fighting for the repair of the 20km-long damaged Mahudi (Hazaribagh)-Karma (Chatra) Road from 2008 which comes under rural works department of rural development department headed by minister Neelkanth Singh Munda.
"I met Munda eight times but he just gave me assurances. The condition of the road is very bad. I request your intervention," Singh told minister Paliwar. He added he tried to contact Simaria (Chatra) MLA Ganesh Ganjhu of the BJP many times but his calls went unheeded.
When Paliwar tried to call Ganjhu repeatedly, the MLA did not pick up. Paliwar ultimately called his department secretary M.S. Meena.
"It is really inspiring that someone like Niranjan babu who is not in active politics anymore is concerned about common people," Paliwar told The Telegraph later.
Around 150 people came to the janata durbar held at chief minister's secretariat today.
Outside the chief minister's secretariat, police detained Baby Nahida, a woman from Dhanbad, who threatened to commit suicide. Nahida, who had come to the janata durbar last week, had alleged she was sexually exploited by a senior BJP worker in Katras called Vinay Kumar Singh.
In the previous janata durbar of health minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi, Nahida had demanded Singh's arrest within a week failing which she would immolate herself. Today, she again alleged her case was deliberately transferred to the CID by chief minister Raghubar Das to hush it up. Paliwar repeatedly told her the CID needed at least two months to complete the investigation but she kept on protesting.
A physically challenged senior citizen, Rambriksh Bhuiyan, from Dali panchayat, Chhatarpur in Palamau, told the minister that PDS dealer Awadh Kishore Jaisawal had seized his ration card three months ago after which he had not been getting foodgrain. He was not getting pension since the past 11 months, Bhuiyan added. Paliwar referred the case to Palamau DC Ameet Kumar.
Deaf-mute cricketer Ranjeet Kumar of Ramgarh, part of the physically challenged cricket team in India, who played in Pakistan and Dubai, requested a job under sports quota. Paliwar forwarded the matter to sports department of Amar Kumar Bauri.
Paliwar also gave financial aid from his own pocket to two cancer patients from Ranchi, Prince Keshri, aged around 10, and Tabarak Hussain, a young man in his late 20s.
