Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to hold janata darbar from July 12

PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar is to restart his ‘Janata ke darbar mein mukhyamantri’ programme on three Mondays every month starting from July 12 to interact with people and listen to their grievances. “The officials are already on their job,” Nitish said on Tuesday.
Chief secretary Tripurari Sharan held a virtual meeting with senior officials of different departments, state DGP and those in field assignments in this regard on Tuesday. The CM secretariat has also issued directives to all the heads of the departments, divisional commissioners, IGs, DIGs, DMs, SSPs and SPs in this connection.
The venue of the janata darbar has been shifted from the CM’s 1, Aney Marg official residence to a new building at the CM secretariat, also called 4KG. Last week, Nitish visited the venue and took stock of the preparations. A big hall with proper sitting arrangements on both sides has been readied for the programme.
Patna DM Chandrashekhar Singh and SSP Upendra Kumar Sharma on Tuesday inspected the site. “The visitors will be allowed inside the hall after proper screening at the entrance gate,” they said.
The DM said the arrangements were being made to maintain social distancing and other Covid norms. Authoritative sources said the officials concerned would be present at the meeting. “All the officers in the field assignments have been properly intimated about the programme. They are supposed to remain present in their respective offices during the meeting,” an additional chief secretary rank officer told this newspaper.
The programme is set to restart after a gap of almost five years. “It was a big hit from 2006 to 2016 when people used to narrate their woes to the CM directly and the officials concerned were asked to look into their grievances fast,” recalled a retired DGP, who used to attend the programme.
The programme was stopped after the introduction of Public Grievance Redressal Act, 2015, which provides right to know about one’s grievances within a stipulated time frame.