Santosh Kumar is certain it was caste rivalry, someone from the nearby Bhumihar-dominated village of Sohe did it. The DM seems to point to Lalu Prasad Yadav’s department: “The cable was laid below the railway track,’’ says Avadesh.

Go to the primary, secondary and high schools in Sikaria to meet the same sequence all over again — of a village suddenly touched by a government’s larger promise, leading to a jump in people’s expectations, then running up against the government’s inability to deliver.

The midday meal was not being served at either the primary or middle school in Sikaria; villagers said it has been at least nine months since it was served in the primary school.

At the middle school, only one of the two teachers is present. He is attending to over 400 students across Classes 1 to 7 huddled in two small rooms. Yes, he has heard new appointments of teachers are underway. No, there is no word on the number of teachers his school will get.

At the high school, where Nitish laid the foundation stone for two new rooms during his January visit, all new talk of appointments raised hopes that the school will finally get a teacher for maths and science. There has been no one to tackle those subjects for years.

Outside the bazaar samiti, another brand new building coming up since January, young men stand in a cluster. They speak of middlemen and the going rate of cuts for job cards. Though Nitish Kumar had promised the entire district would be covered when he came in January, only 28 cards have come to the village so far. The workers are paid as low as Rs 50 a day instead of the mandated Rs 68.

... contd.