<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Governance: Nitish Style</b>
The Bihar chief minister's functioning is markedly different from that of his predecessor, Laloo Yadav.
- Methodical, hands-on approach to administration. Understands nitty-gritty of development schemes.
- Arrives in the secretariat by 10 am and stays till late evening. Personally oversees pet projects and schemes.
- Holds durbars where he himself scrutinises public complaints and passes these on to the ministers and officials concerned.
- Has taken up improving law and order in the state as top priority.
- Many dons in jail after convictions by fast track courts. Thousands arrested under Arms Act.
- No Laloo-style flamboyance for the media. Is correct and dignified with the press.
***
Nitish Kumar is certainly a methodical man. When I go to meet the Bihar chief minister, he has just spent the entire day reading 3,000 written complaints from the people at his janata durbar. His ministers and bureaucrats sit around him in attendance. The sudden heat wave that has descended on the state capital doesn't seem to bother him; he keeps smiling at many complainants and hastily dismisses the others. At the end of the exercise, he finds 1,700 complaints valid, and passes them on to his ministers and bureaucrats. And throughout, he has managed to keep both his cool, and his spectacles, on.
This is quite a leap of faith for Bihar. Its politicians are usually not in the habit of reading petitions from the public. They are more comfortable making speeches, posing for photographs with villagers and leaving the dirty work for their clerks and officials to do, who do not do it anyway. Nitish, in contrast, clearly has the patience for paperwork. His janata durbar is a remarkable feat of endurance. The CM has managed to introduce order in what can easily descend into chaos (every valid complaint is given a number), and inspired the belief that it is not impossible to seekâand getâredressal from the system.
If you ask economist Saibal Gupta, he tells you that, historically, Bihar was never a functioning state. Even before Independence, it had the most organised zamindari system and the lowest per capita expenditure on health, education and other public investments. Politicians in Bihar traditionally followed the route of forging social coalitions, seeking caste support and riding the crest of the state's many social justice or land reform agitations. Social upheaval or transformation has been seen as the key to change in Bihar; not "vikas" or development schemes.
But ever since he came to power, the government has begun preparing economic surveys (written by nationally known economists)âthe first time ever in Bihar's history. The second survey published in March this year duly notes that the state has the lowest per capita income of Rs 5,772, only a quarter of the national average of Rs 22,946. "For the first time," says Gupta, "Nitish is giving the impression that he is trying to build a state. It is a mammoth task, but he has tried to make a beginning."
And it is by no means an easy beginning. Given the state he inherited Bihar in, the CM has a long way to goâthat too on a path ridden with ridicule. First off the block is state RJD president Abdul Bari Siddiqui. "Nitish organised a three-day seminar on poverty indicators," he said. "I told him it is a shame you don't recognise poverty. Lalooji knows that a man who does not get two square meals is poor. Do you need to attend a seminar to understand poverty?"
Laloo certainly wouldn't.
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodna...r+%28F%29&sid=1
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Other 'functioning' but silent CM, whom media generally ignores is Naveen Patnaik. PM material.
The Bihar chief minister's functioning is markedly different from that of his predecessor, Laloo Yadav.
- Methodical, hands-on approach to administration. Understands nitty-gritty of development schemes.
- Arrives in the secretariat by 10 am and stays till late evening. Personally oversees pet projects and schemes.
- Holds durbars where he himself scrutinises public complaints and passes these on to the ministers and officials concerned.
- Has taken up improving law and order in the state as top priority.
- Many dons in jail after convictions by fast track courts. Thousands arrested under Arms Act.
- No Laloo-style flamboyance for the media. Is correct and dignified with the press.
***
Nitish Kumar is certainly a methodical man. When I go to meet the Bihar chief minister, he has just spent the entire day reading 3,000 written complaints from the people at his janata durbar. His ministers and bureaucrats sit around him in attendance. The sudden heat wave that has descended on the state capital doesn't seem to bother him; he keeps smiling at many complainants and hastily dismisses the others. At the end of the exercise, he finds 1,700 complaints valid, and passes them on to his ministers and bureaucrats. And throughout, he has managed to keep both his cool, and his spectacles, on.
This is quite a leap of faith for Bihar. Its politicians are usually not in the habit of reading petitions from the public. They are more comfortable making speeches, posing for photographs with villagers and leaving the dirty work for their clerks and officials to do, who do not do it anyway. Nitish, in contrast, clearly has the patience for paperwork. His janata durbar is a remarkable feat of endurance. The CM has managed to introduce order in what can easily descend into chaos (every valid complaint is given a number), and inspired the belief that it is not impossible to seekâand getâredressal from the system.
If you ask economist Saibal Gupta, he tells you that, historically, Bihar was never a functioning state. Even before Independence, it had the most organised zamindari system and the lowest per capita expenditure on health, education and other public investments. Politicians in Bihar traditionally followed the route of forging social coalitions, seeking caste support and riding the crest of the state's many social justice or land reform agitations. Social upheaval or transformation has been seen as the key to change in Bihar; not "vikas" or development schemes.
But ever since he came to power, the government has begun preparing economic surveys (written by nationally known economists)âthe first time ever in Bihar's history. The second survey published in March this year duly notes that the state has the lowest per capita income of Rs 5,772, only a quarter of the national average of Rs 22,946. "For the first time," says Gupta, "Nitish is giving the impression that he is trying to build a state. It is a mammoth task, but he has tried to make a beginning."
And it is by no means an easy beginning. Given the state he inherited Bihar in, the CM has a long way to goâthat too on a path ridden with ridicule. First off the block is state RJD president Abdul Bari Siddiqui. "Nitish organised a three-day seminar on poverty indicators," he said. "I told him it is a shame you don't recognise poverty. Lalooji knows that a man who does not get two square meals is poor. Do you need to attend a seminar to understand poverty?"
Laloo certainly wouldn't.
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodna...r+%28F%29&sid=1
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Other 'functioning' but silent CM, whom media generally ignores is Naveen Patnaik. PM material.