Patna: In a big setback to chief minister Nitish Kumar, his own minister from JDU quota Madan Sahni tendered his resignation today. Sahni resigned over alleged bureaucracy in the social and welfare department which he looks after.
The three-term MLA who represents the Bahadurpur assembly constituency in the Darbhanga district comes from the EBC community.
“I am really upset over bureaucracy in my department and the present situation prevailing in the system. The officials and bureaucrats do not listen to a minister. If I am unable to execute the work of people who have voted for me then I don't have any right to remain on the post. It pains me when my people ask me and now I have decided and sent the resignation to CM," Sahni told ETV Bharat.
Sahni further said, “How long am I going to tolerate such things. If there is any work related to another department, there is a long process. If the officials are not listening to me in my own department, why should I expect something from another department? I have struggled a lot as the food and consumer protection minister in my last tenure and I am facing the same problem now as well. Three days ago, I had given the list for the transfer-posting but the concerned official has been sitting over it for the past three days. Today I spoke to the chief secretary as well but I did not get any answer so finally, I took the decision to resign from the department.”
Sahni also claimed most ministers are facing a similar fate in Nitish's government in which the bureaucrats do not listen to the ministers. However, he stressed that he will remain in JDU.
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The senior JDU leader also said that though the minister gets a lot of facilities but he is not fond of it and wants it to remain available for his people.
Former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi too reacted to the development. Soon after returning from New Delhi, he stressed that what Sahni is telling is the partial reality in Bihar.
“I am not aware of his resignation but if Madan Sahni is saying that only bureaucracy rules in the department, It is the partial reality. Most of the officers do not give any weightage to the words of MLAs and ministers. In fact, I have raised this issue long back during the NDA meeting," Manjhi told the reporters at Patna airport.
Opposition party RJD leader Shakti Yadav on the other took a jibe on the functioning of the Nitish Kumar government and claimed that their leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has been raising this issue time and again about how the dictatorship of bureaucracy exists in Bihar.
