Poor Bihar! Nitish govt makes three-fold hike in ministers' salary

Manoj Chaurasia / The Statesman

Patna:

Is Bihar really poor? Even as the chief minister Nitish Kumar continues seeking special category status to his state citing its economic backwardness and complains about “step-motherly treatment” being meted out to the state by the centre in matter of fund allocation, the state government headed by him has gone on hiking the salary of ministers and lawmakers at constant intervals amid the ongoing protests by schoolteachers, university staffs, municipal staffs and other such government staffs over long-standing salary dues for want of funds.

In a fresh move, the state Cabinet which met here last evening has approved three-fold hike in the monthly salary and allowances of Cabinet rank ministers, state ministers and deputy rank ministers in the state. The move will benefit dozens of chairmen, vice-chairmen of commissions, corporations, boards, council and committees enjoying the status of ministers, ministers of state and deputy ministers. As per the decisions, the people in this category will now be entitled to a monthly salary of a whopping Rs 25,000 from existing salary of Rs 8,000.

Principal secretary, cabinet coordination department, Bihar Mr Ravukant said the existing allowances which include hospitality allowance, travel allowance and daily allowances of the ministers too had been suitably hiked. As per the new decision, the cabinet rank ministers now will be entitled to a hospitality allowance of Rs 18,000 per month in place of existing Rs 10,000 whereas the state rank ministers will get the hospitality allowance of Rs 17,500 in place of Rs 8,000. Likewise, the monthly hospitality allowance of deputy rank minister too has been hiked to Rs 17,000 in place of existing Rs 6,000. Besides, they will also avail the facility of enjoying spacious government bungalows and will further be entitled for a daily allowance of Rs 1,000.

The move comes shortly after the Nitish Kumar government had made a 300 percent hike in the salary and allowances of 318 legislators from both Houses of state legislatures, bringing their consolidated monthly salary to approximately Rs 1 lakh, thus entailing an additional burden of Rs 34 crore on the state exchequer.

Strangely, the decision about the salary hike of lawmakers was taken by the state Cabinet last year on a day when the entire nation was busy watching the ICC Cricket world cup semi-final between India and Pakistan being played at Mohali. As per the revised pay structure, the lawmakers are now drawing a monthly salary of Rs 25,000 against previous Rs 8,000, constituency allowance of Rs 25,000 (against previous Rs 12,000), furniture allowance of Rs 50,000, stationary allowance of Rs 8,000, additional allowance of Rs 15,000, daily allowance of Rs 1,000 and others. Their vehicle loan limit has also been raised to Rs 8 lakh against existing Rs 5 lakh while their traveling coupon has gone up to Rs 2 lakh from 1.5 lakh earlier. The Cabinet also made manifold hike in the salary of chief minister and his 29 cabinet colleagues.

This is the third time in past six years that the Nitish Kumar government has hiked the salary of ministers and lawmakers. Earlier, he had made such hike in the salary of lawmakers soon after coming to power in 24 November 2005. There a total of 318 legislators in Bihar state legislature~ 243 from the Legislative Assembly and 75 from Legislative Council. Meanwhile, the state government is further considering to increase the number of existing members of Legislative Council, claiming it is under-represented.

Bathani Tola:NDA divided on decision to move SC

Manoj Chaurasia/The Statesman

PATNA, 20 APRIL: The NDA government in Bihar appears to be divided over challenging the Patna High Court’s order acquitting all the 23 accused in the killing of 21 Dalits at Bathani Tola massacre some 16 years ago. While chief minister Nitish Kumar and his Cabinet colleague Mr Jitan Ram Manjhi announced they would approach the Supreme Court against the HC order, the BJP leaders have sought to close down the chapter.

“One should not drag out the issue (acquittal of the Bathani Tola accused) too much. Please keep the chapter closed or this may further vitiate the social harmony in the state,” Bihar’s animal husbandry minister Giriraj Singh told reporters here today. Prior to him, state BJP chief C P Thakur had pleaded so while reacting to the HC’s acquittal of the accused persons.

The minister’s remark comes a day after Mr Kumar publicly announced the government would move the Apex court against the HC’s order. “The government will approach the Supreme Court soon challenging the HC’s order acquitting the 23 convicted in the infamous carnage case in the Bathani Tola,” the chief minister said yesterday. Earlier, SC/ST welfare minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, too, had put the government’s stand in the media saying “the government has decided to move the Supreme Court”.

BIhar legislator wanted in Nepal

Manoj Chaurasia/The Statesman

PATNA: Lawmaker in Bihar, lawbreaker in Nepal. This is the case of Zakir Anwar, alias “Zakir Mian”, Lok Janshakti Party legislator from Araria, who figures among the list of 50 criminals of Indian origin wanted by the Nepal police for serious crimes like murder, kidnapping and smuggle of narcotics.

The list was handed over to the state police during the coordination meeting of Bihar and Nepal authorities held in the Himalayan Kingdom earlier this week. The list also mentions that all the criminals figuring in the most wanted list are reportedly taking shelter in the border district of Araria under various fictitious names while seeking cooperation from the local authorities in arresting the absconders dodging the Nepalese police for long.

Mr Anwar, the lone legislator from Ram Vilas Paswan’s party, is wanted by the Nepalese police in connection with the kidnapping of a prominent businessman Tulsi Agrawal in 2002. It is said Mr Agrawal was released by the abductors after 20 days of captivity only after he had coughed up a whopping Rs 5 crore. The complicity of Mr Anwar in the crime came up reportedly during the interrogation of a dreaded gangster from Bihar, Pappu Dev, now lodged in a Nepal jail.

The development has come as a severe embarrassment to the LJP now trying hard to increase its base in Bihar. Perhaps, this is the reason that the party is refusing to say anything over the issue. Initially, the legislator himself tried to divert the issue saying “his name is different from what has been written in the list of criminals handed over by the Nepalese police” but on constant grilling by the local media he said it was part of a large conspiracy hatched by his political adversaries to defame him. “The day when Mr Agrawal was kidnapped, I was in Nepal. So, how can I be involved in the incident?” he asked.

However, local district superintendent of police Shivdeep W Lande said he would extend all possible cooperation to the Nepal counterpart in getting the absconders arrested. “I have asked them to come and identify the criminals as named in the wanted list,” Mr Lande said today, adding this would help check crime in both countries.

India shares around a thousand km of open border with Nepal which has proved a blessing in disguise for criminal gangs.

'Blade-man' terrorises girls in Bihar

Manoj Chaurasia/The Statesman

PATNA: Slashing the hands and arms of little girls with razor blades, a mysterious stalker has struck terror into the hearts of residents here in the capital of Bihar.  In the past three days, the "blade-man" has attacked around a dozen girls in various parts of the state capital. Parents are so panicked that they are not allowing their children to leave home alone, even to play with friends or attend coaching classes.

They say the blade-man suddenly appears on foot, slashes the girls and then melts away into a crowd. All the victims are between five and 17 years old.  Most of the cases have been reported from Noon Ka Chauraha, Loha Ka Pool, Begum Ki Haveli and Udrahamapur localities busy Patna city, the business hub of the state capital. Parents say the slasher normally strikes in a crowded place, so he can quickly disappear.

Alarmed at the panic the "blade-man" has created, local police have constituted a special team to nab him. They have also released a sketch of the suspect, on the basis of information provided by victims.  The sketch shows him as a youth, in his mid-20s sporting black jeans, a black shirt, and a cap. However, this has only led to a fresh law-and-order problem in the city, as the angry residents have started assaulting almost any youth who resembles the suspect in the sketch.  

Only yesterday, the mob assaulted at least three youths and tried to lynch Mohammad Shafiqu, suspecting he was the real slasher. If police hadn't protected him, he might have been killed. Mr Shafiqu said he was just an innocent rag-picker.  

The mob kept pressing police to hand him over to them for "raw justice". Police refused, so the mob tried to break open the gate of the police station. Eventually, police had to resort to caning to disperse the mob, and bring the situation under control.  Narrating her tale, one of the victims, Ms Hema Perveen, said she was returning home after buying vegetables when the "blade-man" slashed her right hand.  "Initially, I did not understand what had happened, but soon I felt severe pain as blood began oozing out," she said. Hearing her cries, her parents rushed to the spot, but by then the slasher had vanished into the crowd.  

Most of the victims have been wounded on their right hands, and all have had to be admitted to hospitals.  They include Kumari Jyoti, Rajnanadini Kumari, Soni Kumari and Muskan Kumari.

Lalu slams Nitish for "bowing" before Raj Thackeray

Manoj Chaurasia/The Statesman

Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Sunday visit to Mumbai to attend celebrations there of Bihar’s centenary has sparked strong protests in his home state.

Opposition politicians are accusing him of frittering away people’s hard-earned money and undermining the dignity of Bihar, all in an effort to burnish his image.

“Instead of resorting to Bihar centenary celebration theatrics, the chief minister should have visited the people in distress in his homeland. Celebration function do not mitigate the miseries of the people,” said Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and Lalu Prasad, Mr Kumar's arch-rival.

At a Press conference today in Patna, he called Mr Kumar a coward and said the chief minister has hurt the state's prestige by surrendering before MNS chief Raj Thackeray. “Instead of saying ‘jai Bihar, he (Mr Kumar) first said ‘jai Maharashtra’ at the function. Only a big fool would say this,” said Mr Prasad.

The MNS chief had earlier dared Mr Kumar to participate in the Bihar Diwas celebrations in Mumbai. He withdrew his threat, however, after the ruling party leaders met the MNS chief and told him it was a purely “socio-cultural” event, rather than political.

Later, the chief minister also talked to Mr Thackeray on the phone. It is said that ruling party lawmaker and former minister Devesh Chandra Thakur brokered a peace deal. "What kind of art is he (Mr Kumar) displaying by surrendering before those protesting his visit?" asked Mr Prasad. "He has spent cores of rupees to polish his image and caused considerable damage to the state ... Today, Bihar lags behind many states."

The RJD chief said Bihar's NDA government has failed on all fronts: the law-and-order situation has collapsed; the number of corruption cases has touched a new high; power is totally absent from the state; and the poor have become victims of the state’s atrocities. He said he would go to people and expose the "reality" of the NDA’s development story.

The CPI, too, reacted sharply to the Bihar Diwas celebration in Mumbai. “This is a sheer waste of the people’s money, which should have been spent on welfare work,” said state CPI secretary Badri Narayan Lal. “The common people are surely not going to benefit from this move by the chief minister.”

Mr Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP party, meanwhile, has announced that it will launch a signature campaign against the Nitish Kumar administration on 30 April to make the people aware of the “misdeeds of the state government”.

Bihar seethes over massacre accused's acquittal

Manoj Chaurasia/The Statesman

PATNA: Bihar was on the boil a day after Patna High Court, citing "defective evidence," acquitted all 23 people who had been convicted by a lower court for the massacre of 21 Dalits.

Angry CPI-ML workers and activists took to the streets in several districts, shouting slogans against the government, and demanding justice for the victims' families. Hundreds of CPI-ML workers and activists marched through Patna, badly disrupting traffic for hours.

The killings were executed 16 years ago at Bathani Tola in Bhojpur district by the Ranvir Sena, a private militia of upper-caste landlords. District judge Ajay Kumar Srivastava in 2010 gave 20 accused life terms, and three death sentences for the massacre.

A division bench of Patna High Court comprising Mr Justice Navniti Prasad and Mr Justice Ashwini Kumar Singh yesterday freed them all. "The investigation was not fair to the persons who perpetrated the ghastly crime," the Bench explained.

"Apparently, the investigation was directed in a particular direction far from the truth, and not above suspicion," according to the Bench, which observed that the truth had been deliberately "suppressed" by the investigating agency and the prosecution, to project the involvement of the accused.

The protesters, though, were unconvinced by this explanation, seeing the court's decision as part of a deliberate pattern of actions by the state government. "What kind of justice is being delivered under Nitish raj?" asked Mr Kunal, the CPI-ML's state secretary. "While a woman accused in the BJP legislator Raj Kishore Kesari murder case is given life term under speedy trial, and 14 accused from a poor community are given death in Amausi massacre case, the feudal-communal elements are being allowed to go scot free."

The NDA government has been working against the poor, Mr Kunal said. "The first step in that direction was the scrapping of Justice Amirdas Commission probing the links of politicians across the political parties with the Ranvir Sena." The commission was scrapped in 2006 just when it was about to submit its report.

The self-proclaimed chief of the Ranvir Sena, Mr Barmeshwar Singh Mukhia, despite being the alleged mastermind behind several caste-massacres in Bihar, remains free. He was granted bail in one case in July last year, after having been granted bail in five other cases, earlier. He has been acquitted in 16 cases related to massacres he had allegedly engineered, leading to caste tension in the state in late 1990s and early 2000s.

Referring to yesterday's decision, senior CPI-ML leader Ramji Ram said: "The marauders only killed the poor, but the Nitish Kumar government has executed a 'judicial massacre,' by showing gross negligence towards this case. The people of the state will never forgive him for his double-standard."

Another senior leader, Ms Meena Tiwari, said chief minister Nitish Kumar had done a lot of talking about his government’s "development with justice" agenda, but yesterday's decision had exposed the real face of his government. "His development with justice agenda is a sham now," she said.

The leaders said they would not sit idle until justice is delivered to the victim’s families. They demanded that the perpetrators of the massacre be hanged.

When gangsters turn authors!

Manoj Chaurasia / The Statesman
PATNA: Criminals are usually known for wielding weapons, but several dreaded gangster-politicians now cooling their heels in Bihar jails have taken up pens, instead.

Caged for offenses as serious as murder, kidnapping, extortion and treason, these authors have penned books on topics including non-violence, and coalition government.

The latest to join the list is Anand Mohan, whose collection of poems Qaid mein azad kalam (Free Pen in Prison) hit the stands recently. It is an anthology of the poems he composed during his incarceration, published by Rajkamal Prakashan.

A former parliamentarian, Mohan has been sentenced to hang for the murder of senior bureaucrat G Krishnnaih, and is currently lodged in eastern Bihar’s Saharsa district jail. “The poems in this collection reflect various facets of his personal life, with his views on politics, religion and his career,” said a close relative of Mohan’s.

Another dreaded gangster, Sunil Pandey, is giving final shape to his soon-to-be published book Relevance of Mahavir’s Preaching in Today’s Time. Ironically, Mahavir, like Buddha, is described as a messenger of peace and non-violence.

A ruling party lawmaker, Pandey was elected on the Janata Dal-United ticket in the last Assembly polls. He is currently living in a central Bihar jail, facing serious charges including murder, kidnapping and extortion in at least 30 criminal cases.

Pandey hit the headlines when his name figured in the kidnapping of prominent Patna neurologist Ramesh Chandra, but he denies terrorising decent citizens.

“The mythological Ram, too, killed the demon king Ravana. Lord Krishna slew Kans, a tyrant. Why don’t you call them criminals?” he said, when asked why he ~ a violent criminal ~ had chosen the peace-loving Mahavira as the subject for his book. “If killing tyrants is a crime, then I’m a criminal.”

Mohammad Sahabuddin, who was once known as “Shahabu AK-47” because of his affinity for crime, is trying to join these writers. The mighty politician-criminal from Bihar, who did his PhD on coalition government in Bihar at Muzaffarpur’s Baba Sahib Bhimrao Ambedkar University, is said to be seeking a publisher to turn his voluminous thesis into a book.

He has been in north Bihar’s Siwan jail since 4 November 2005, sentenced to life in the kidnapping and murder of a political leader. Shahabuddin is an accused in over 50 cases, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, vehicle thefts and treason.

Also, Rajesh Ranjan, alias “Pappu Yadav” is looking for a publisher for a book on his political life titled Sau juta maro par bahubali mat kaho (Hit Me with Shoes 100 Times but Don’t Call Me a Strongman).

The police stumbled upon the manuscript when they recently raided Patna’s Beur jail, where Yadav resides. A special CBI court on 14 February 2008 gave him life for the murder of Left politician Ajit Sarkar.

Senior Indian Police Service officer Amitabh Kumar Das said these efforts at writing were just ploys to attract the attention of the society which has now disowned these inmates.

“Mahatma Gandhi’s murderer Nathuram Godse, too, penned a book, Why Did I Kill Gandhi? Dreaded don Babloo Srivastava has written Adhoore Khwab or Unfulfilled Dream,” Mr Das said. “Sometime later you will come to know that Daud Ibrahim, too, has become an author. This nothing but a farce.”

(Manoj Chaurasia is the Patna-based Bureau Chief of The Statesman)

Sam Pitroda: No need for special category status to Bihar

Manoj Chaurasia/ Patna

Patna, April 6 : In a severe setback to Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar’s repeated demand for a special category status to Bihar, the advisor to Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations Sam Pitroda today said there was no need for that.

For the past few years, Mr Kumar had been actively campaigning for a special category be granted to Bihar on the ground that it would woo more private investors leading to huge growth and prosperity in the state.

“There is no need for a special status to Bihar to help it woo private investments as the state has sufficient resources. All it requires is to mobilise them,” said Mr Pitroda who was here to attend the third convocation of a management institute.

Stating that it was not possible for the Centre to meet every demand coming from the states, he said: “Everybody is today asking for special assistance, including states like West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Bihar”.

Referring to the state government’s contention that the special  category status will lead to private investors, Mr Pitroda said the investors had a lot of options to set up industrial units across the country adding they take such decisions depending upon the availability of various resources and infrastructure anywhere in the country.

Further, he advised the government to focus on power generation, education, health and industry.
The development has come as a huge setback to the state government which was expecting some “good news” from the Centre sometimes this year.

Only in July last year, a team of state JD-U leaders had submitted 1.25 crore signatures collected from the people and complied in over 1800 books to the Prime Minister, seeking for a special category status. Some local newspapers too had sided with the state government and had been actively campaigning for this demand, claiming “India can’t move ahead if Bihar lags behind”. 

This is the second time in the past few weeks that the state government has met with serious strategic failures, indicating its poor coordination with the Centre.

The development comes soon after the Centre decided to set up Central University of Bihar (CUB) at Gaya, instead of Bihar chief minister’s demand to set up the same in Motihari.

Mr Kumar had been pressing for the CUB in Motihari on the ground that it was from where Mahatma Gandhi launched his Satyagrha but the Centre said Gaya has better infrastructure as well as linked with road, rail and air.

An irate Mr Kumar, however, has shot off several protest letters to the Union HRD minister Kapil Sibbal charging him with playing with the sentiments of the people of Motihari.

But the move seems to have backfired now as now the residents of Gaya have gone on agitation-path in protest against the state government’s stiff opposition to it and its growing demand to shift the university from Gaya to Motihari.

The residents have declared that any move to shift the the university from Gaya will be opposed tooth and nail.