Bihar rivals’ clash stalls progress

Manoj Chaurasia
PATNA, Jan. 25: Last week when Mr Lalu Prasad went on his official tour of Japan, his arch-rival and Bihar chief minister Mr Nitish Kumar quipped that the railway minister appears to be immensely impressed by “Japanese dolls”. He even cited a popular song from a Hindi film depicting Japanese culture, Sayonara, sayonara… le gayi dil gudiya Japan ki… to explain how excited Mr Prasad was about the Japan tour, yet so indifferent towards issues of Bihar. This indifference, Mr Kumar said, would force him to say Sayonara (Japanese for farewell) to politics.
Returning from Japan a few days ago, Mr Prasad returned the compliments saying, “I had gone to Japan to publicise success of Indian railways, and not to see Japanese doll as the chief minister said earlier but Nitish indeed has said bye-bye to the state capital and took shelter in villages to escape torture of continuing strike by non-gazetted employees in Bihar”.
The “war of words” between the two political titans of Bihar has indirectly brought to the fore the bitter truth about development projects in the state. The strike, which has been continuing for the past 17 days, has severely paralysed the functioning of government offices across the state and brought all development work to a near standstill. According to reports, about 3.5 lakh employees out of a total 5 lakh are on an indefinite strike since 7 January demanding benefits of the Sixth Pay Commission. The attendance in government offices is thin and ignoring the government's warnings, they have refused to budge from their stand and join duty.
"What's the meaning of this (Nitish's) Vikas Yatra when employees are on strike demanding their dues? How will Bihar move on the path to progress and who will help it when the executing staff are on warpath?” the railway minister questioned while lending his wholehearted support to the striking employees. Emboldened by Mr Prasad's support, the strikers have decided to fight a decisive battle, leading to a near total impasse in the state.
What's costing Bihar more is that the strike has come at a time when development schemes need to be taken up. Funds have been earmarked on them after the state officials just managed to tackle the flood disaster for months. With barely two months left for the financial year to close and both the government and striking leaders hardening their stand, Bihar may have to surrender the hard-gained funds, this time again. While the state government has said the employees have been offered a package much beyond the financial capability of Bihar, the striking employees have refused to return to duty until and unless the Central pay scale is implemented in toto. What has reportedly boosted the morale of the striking employees is the total backing of the railway minister who has demanded that the employees be given the benefits of the Central pay scale which is ''their right''. Bihar looks to be the loser in the ongoing political battle between the two top leaders.

Source : thestatesman.net