Buxar district magistrate Raman Kumar listens to complaints of people at the janata durbar in Rajpur block of the district on Sunday. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary

Bihar's government servants are increasingly going the extra mile to help people in what will be a welcome trend if it continues.

After Gopalganj district magistrate Rahul Kumar (a 2011-batch officer) hit headlines for his commendable act of reinstating a cook who had been sacked as midday meal cook at a school for being a widow, his counterpart in Buxar has garnered kudos for holding a janata durbar (town-hall style meeting) in a remote village to ensure that people have easy access to senior officials.In Gaya, district magistrate Kumar Ravi has ordered a magisterial inquiry on Saturday after the arrest of Rakesh Kumar, the domestic help of a doctor posted at Anugrah Narayan Memorial Medical College and Hospital, for signing the attendance register on his employer's behalf. Ravi described the matter as serious and said the administration would put a stop to such unlawful activities.

Police officers too are not lagging behind.

On Sunday, Gaya senior superintendent of police Garima Malik visited several villages known as "liberated zones" of the Maoists, to address the problems faced by the residents. She stressed on the need to restore the old chaukidari system.

"The chaukidars worked as the eyes and ears of government agencies," she said. "But now, they have either been won over to the side of the red rebels in the name of class alliance, or have been browbeaten into submission."

Buxar DM Raman Kumar (a 2009-batch officer) held the meeting at a village under Rajpur block on Saturday.

Raman listened to the numerous complaints of the people, directed officials concerned to address their grievances and stayed the night to pass on a message to the local people - that his services were available to them all the time. The officials visited Dalit tolas at night, to get feedback on developmental work in the area.

"There are people who cannot afford to visit the district headquarters to lodge complaints. There are others, who are either physically weak or stay alone at home. So we decided to make our services available to them," said Raman.

He was satisfied with the response to the programme.

"People visited the department stalls in large numbers and submitted written complaints. These will be taken care of," he told The Telegraph over the phone from Buxar, around 140km west of Patna, on Sunday.

Around 10,000 people from nine panchayats under Rajpur block attended the durbar held in the village for the first time.

"I have come here to draw the babu s' attention to the non-payment of old-age pension," said Basanti Devi (62), a resident of Basahi village

She had travelled 15km from her home to reach the venue for the programme held under the Aapki sarkar, aapke dwar (government at your doorstep) programme.

Sudarshan Singh (46) and Braj Kishore Singh (42) had come from Rampur and Kaithahar Khurd villages, respectively, to highlight power supply issues. They said that electric poles had been installed in their villages a long time ago but power eludes both Rampur and Kaithahar.

Shambhu Nath Yadav of Bhagwanpur village complained about the arbitrary attitude of the circle officer of his block in settling land disputes. "Most of the time, the officer remains absent from office and people have to wait for weeks to get their work done," he told the officials.

Buxar deputy development commissioner Mobin Ali Ansari said 20 stalls from different departments were put up for the programme. All the officials - from the district magistrate to the panchayat-level ones - were present to hear the complaints.

Ansari said majority of the complaints were related to old-age pension, lack of electricity in villages and irregular supply of food grains from shops under the public distribution system.

"After the programme was over, two officers each visited the Dalit tolas to get feedback on development and welfare schemes," he added.