Nitish's reviews have babus running for cover

PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar is currently busy reviewing the functioning of the government machinery in various divisions of the state. After the exhaustive review meetings are over, the CM will write confidential reports (CRs) of top bureaucrats. The move has given rise to a feeling in bureaucratic circles that heads might roll after the exercise as the CM is not satisfied with the present state of affairs. Beginning with Bhagalpur and Munger divisions, the chief minister hopped from one place to another during the last one week and grilled officials during gruelling sessions with divisional commissioners and district magistrates. Only Saran remains to be reviewed. The CM is likely to visit the division after his return from West Bengal where he went on Sunday for campaigning in favour of BJP and Trinamul Congress candidates. A fuming Nitish took fumbling bureaucrats to task at several places and warned them in no uncertain terms to mend their ways and give more attention to implementation of welfare schemes and development work. "You have to either deliver or go," he told the officials whose functioning was found unsatisfactory. "I called only commissioners and DMs and inquired about various schemes relating to different departments and their actual implementation," he told TOI. In Gaya, angry over people's woes over the drinking water scarcity and administrative apathy, he not only issued orders to officials of PHED and water resources department for short-term as well as long-term strategies but also told them that he would come there again and camp for a week to personally monitor the compliance of the orders. When asked if he would write the CRs of the officials after the review meetings, a smiling Nitish said: "That has to be done by me, review or no review." Nitish conceded that he was not very satisfied with the functioning of the government machinery at divisional and district levels and found many a hurdle in the implementation of welfare work. "The people of the state have great expectations from this government and we have to live up to their expectations. And, hence this exercise," he said.

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RANJAN RITURAJ SINH