On June 23, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar used his janta darbar to send out a stern message to his bureaucrats to pull up their socks and cooperate with public representatives on development and welfare schemes.

His strong reaction came after a flurry of complaints by mayors, deputy mayors and ward commissioners, who were unhappy with babus “marginalising” their roles in the implementation of development/welfare schemes in their areas. Several MLAs also complained that they were not being invited to the launch of development schemes in their constituencies.

Does this strong message by Nitish Kumar from a public platform mean that he has turned the tables on his bureaucrats?

Nitish, known for supporting bureaucrats during his tenure as Railway Minister and also for most part of his present term as Chief Minister, is slowly getting wary of his executive, possibly because they are not catching up with the pace of his “new Bihar” plan.

Recently, Nitish found himself in an “embarrassing” situation when the Medical Council of India (MCI) refused to inspect the sites of proposed medical colleges in the state — one each at Betia, Madhepura and Pawapuri — because none of the areas had infrastructure as per the MCI guidelines. The state Government had moved the proposals to the Centre without “any homework” such as earmarking 25 acres of land for a college with 300-bed hospital, said an MCI source.

The instance made it clear that the Chief Minister was wrongly advised by his men in their bid to “rush with the development agenda”.

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