We are people’s servants, not masters: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday urged everyone cutting across party lines to serve people and work for a better Bihar. He was speaking at a function to celebrate the glorious past of Bihar legislative assembly on the completion of 100 years of its building. Inaugurating the yearlong centenary celebrations at the assembly, Nitish stressed on healthy debate and discussions in the House to serve people in a better way.
It was on this day when the first session of the Bihar and Odisha provincial legislative council was formally inaugurated by Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, the then governor of the erstwhile province.Though the building was ready by 1920, the inaugural session was held on February 7, 1921.
Nitish said the President and Prime Minister will also attend the celebrations and suggested Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha to invite all former legislators any day to get benefitted from their views and experiences. It will also help the new and young legislators, he said.
Nitish said Bihar has a glorious past and recalled the contributions of first CM Shrikrishna Singh, Anugrah Narayan Singh and Jannayak Karpoori Thakur. “Bihar lagged behind others for some time, but the state has again been marching ahead on the progress path. We may be different on political lines, but we have to work together to serve the people and develop Bihar further more so that the country could move forward,” Nitish said.
He told the legislators, particularly of ruling parties, not to consider themselves as the “masters” because people are the “maalik and we are sevaks (servants) in a democracy”.
The CM also agreed to suggestions of holding sessions of the state legislature for a longer period so that every member gets time to ask questions and raise issues of their respective constituencies. “Normally we have a longer Budget session. But monsoon and winter sessions run for 7 to 10 days. “If you wish, we will extend it further so that members get a fair amount of time to express their views and opinion on various matters and raise issues in their areas,” he said. The CM, however, said it has to be collectively decided by the assembly Speaker and the council Chairman.
Stating that the number of coronavirus cases has been quite low in Bihar and the government has done its best to overcome it, Nitish said the virus appears to be some kind of mischief or hinted at China where different types of “artificial works take place”.
Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, legislative council acting Chairman Awadhesh Narayan Singh, deputy chief ministers Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi, former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary and a host of ministers, legislators and other dignitaries attended the inaugural function. Others who spoke on the occasion included RJD’s Awadh Bihari Choudhary, Congress’s Vijay Shankar Dubey and Ajit Sharma, CPI(ML)’s Mahboob Alam, AIMIM’s Akhtarul Iman, CPI's Ram Ratan Singh and CPI(M)'s Ajay Kumar.