Nitish Listen them Carefully

(NITISH KUMAR Surfing Famous Blog "BIHAR TODAY")

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Thursday held a public meet at his official residence, redressing various kinds of complaints from people - with a little help from his mobile.Dressed in his usual white kurta-pyjama in his first Lok Adalat, or people's court of sorts, the engineer-turned-chief minister was assisted by the state police chief and senior officials while fulfilling this pre-election promise.Suring the two-hour meet, Nitish Kumar kept instructing his officer on special duty, Sanjay Kumar, to connect him to district magistrates, departmental secretaries and commissioners to instantly solve the problems of the people with whom he interacted. A phone call went to the Vaishali district magistrate who was asked to provide relief assistance and houses under the Indira Awas Yojna to the 400 victims of a fire incident in Marai village. When a group of wives of some employees of the Bihar State Transport Corporation complained about their husbands not receiving any salary, a call was made to the corporation commissioner."Pancham Lal, they complain they have not received salaries. Please clear the payment today itself," Nitish Kumar told the corporation head over the phone.The scorching heat did not deter the chief minister to listen patiently to the people as a perspiring chief minister often wiped his forehead.Another call went out to the secretary of the welfare department who was asked to take necessary action after a Dalit youth narrated his plight.Nitish Kumar assured help to a Muslim couple whose 15-year-old daughter was abducted in February this year.Talking to reporters later, he clarified that he had not given any name to the exercise. "It was certainly not a Janata Durbar as it was a programme to meet people and listen to their grievances and get feedback," Nitish Kumar said."It is for you newspersons to give a name to my programme. You can call it whatever you think right. "I will meet the people here twice a week."

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Thousands of people, with various problems reached the residence of Kumar.“People come with different complaints. The moment we understand their complaints, we immediately call the concerned officials and send those people to them. For example, there is the problem of disabled people or there are other development related issues, which we take up promptly”, said Kumar.The Jan Adalat was held in keeping with his promise to make the administration more responsible to people's aspirations.The Chief Minister has planned to hold the Jan Adalats in all 38 districts of the State, involving open trials for the victims as he reportedly felt that such open trial would also enable the people in general to overcome the fear psychosis related with the names of these dreaded criminals.People with varied difficulties are approaching the Chief Minister with full hopes that their problems would be personally dealt with by Kumar. “We belong to Vastra Nigam Ltd. We have talked to the CM regarding our woes and he after studying our problems, promised to get back to us shortly”, said Promila Kumari, a complainant.The helpless people have high hopes from their Chief Minister.“My problem is that some people want to forcibly acquire my land. The panchayat is also with them since 1980. They are not letting me cultivate my land. I have registered my complaint with the CM and he will look into the matter”, said Tribhuvan Sharma, another complainant who attended the Jan Adalat today.Kumar announced that he will hold Jan Adalat, twice a week. However, time will decide to what extent he will prove successful in solving peoples' problems.

RANJAN RITURAJ SINH