Nitish lashes out at striking employees

23 Jan 2009, 0819 hrs IST, Faizan Ahmad, TNN
PARSHURAMPUR (EAST CHAMPARAN): Breaking his silence over the indefinite strike by government employees
, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday
lashed out at them, saying his priority is to solve the poor people’s problems and meet their basic requirements.

During his ongoing Vikas Yatra, which reached here after criss-crossing Bagaha and other parts of West Champaran, Nitish said he is extremely moved by the poverty of common villagers. He was also critical of the inept handling of the pro-people schemes by government employees responsible to take the benefits to the targeted groups.

“Hum pahle in garib janata ke dukh-dard ko dekhein aur kuchh samadhan karein ya padadhikariyon ke sukh-suvidha badhane ka kam karein (Do we first work towards ameliorating the people’s suffering or pay attention to enhancing the facilities of government employees). There cannot be any compromise on selecting our priority,” he said.

Nitish said his government is spending Rs 16,000 crore annually on payment of salaries and pension while the Plan size of the state is only Rs 13,000 crore. “From where do I arrange the fund to meet all the demands. I can’t print currency notes,” he said.

The chief minister also requested the Centre to grant special state status to Bihar to enable it to combat acute poverty. He said over 60 per cent of the state’s population hails from below poverty line.

During the last three days of his yatra, the CM was really peeved over the poor implementation of various schemes in the countryside.

And he was confronted with bitter and angry reactions from villagers over the prevailing situation and the role of babus.

That could perhaps be the reason he is prompting locals to come out and speak without any fear against anybody responsible for their woes.