CM asks babus to pay heed to lawmakers

PATNA: Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has started meeting the members of Parliament and legislators of the grand alliance comprising JD(U), RJD and Congress to take stock of developmental works in their constituencies. He will continue his meetings with the lawmakers division-wise. The lawmakers from Darbhanga division met him on Monday. But, he did not invite MPs, MLAs and MLCs of the BJP.
Top bureaucrats, including chief secretary, DGP, principal secretary (home) and secretaries of various departments besides almost his entire cabinet were present at the meeting which was also attended by RJD legislature party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui.
The CM asked the officials to carefully listen to the legislators, take cognizance of their issues and give them due respect. He stoutly denied any political motive behind the move and told TOI that his only aim was to give the legislators a platform where they can raise their grievances. Manjhi said through he was not challenging the supremacy of any other leader (read Nitish Kumar).
Manjhi separately inquired about the pace of developmental works and the status of schools, hospitals, community halls, roads, drinking water and irrigation facilities in their areas. He asked the officials to fix the target and date of completing the ongoing projects and their inauguration. “After a month or two, I will again hold meeting for midterm review of the works and the progress made,” the CM said and directed the officials to duly inform the legislators about the progress made on the issues raised by them.
CM asked chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh to ensure that the letters of public representatives are duly answered and that the matters raised by them should not be overlooked. He said a blueprint would be prepared on the issues discussed at the meeting and the schemes would be implemented on war footing. “The purpose of this meeting is to take the development work to the society at the grassroots level and fulfill the people’s aspirations as per the recommendation of the local public representatives,” he said.
The legislators raised the issues related to power, road, bridge and PDS. They were informed that work on changing transformers had been started on large scale and efforts were on take electricity to 9,000 non-electrified villagers.
Road construction department minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lalan said all the old bridges of concrete, iron and wood would be converted into RCC bridges. Rural works department secretary said tenders were being floated for the construction of a large number of rural roads and the contractors would be selected soon. The CM directed him to get the local MLAs and MLCs inscribed on the plaque for foundation laying or inauguration.