Corrupt Bihar top cop's house converted into a school

The Bihar government Wednesday opened a school for mentally challenged children in a house confiscated from former director general of police Narayan Mishra, convicted for amassing wealth through graft, an official said.

The school, named "Chaman" (garden) is the first such in Bihar.

"It is a unique school to impart education to mentally challenged children and it opened in the confiscated house of a top police officer," a district official said.

"More than 50 children will be enrolled in the school," the official said. According to officials, the education imparted in the school will equip the children to lead as normal a life as possible, given their mental state.

Last year, the state government had taken a decision to open the school in the house confiscated from Mishra. The 5,937 sq ft house in Rukunpura locality of the state capital was transferred to the social welfare department.

A vigilance court in 2012 had ordered the confiscation of the property, finding Mishra guilty of amassing wealth far in excess of known sources of income.

It was the first time that a police officer who had been at the helm of the state's police force was tried under the Bihar Special Court Act, 2009.

Mishra had challenged the vigilance court's order in the Patna High Court, but his petition was rejected.

A vigilance case was lodged against Mishra in 2007 for amassing assets including property valued at Rs.1.40 crore in 1984.

Mishra was suspended by the government four years ago.

Till date, the Bihar government has confiscated the houses of an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Shiv Shankar Verma, and a treasury clerk, Girish Kumar.

Proceedings to confiscate properties of some more officials have been initiated.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar last year gave his nod for the prosecution of nearly two dozen officials.

BIADA to reinstate sacked staff

The Patna High Court on Monday disposed of a Letters Patent Appeal (LPA) of the Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA) on its submission that it would reinstate the 108 employees whose services it had terminated.

A division bench presided by acting Chief Justice Shivakirti Singh and Justice Anjana Prakash disposed of the petition when additional advocate general Lalit Kishore submitted that BIADA had recently got an undertaking from the association of the terminated employees that they would not resort to strike and maintain discipline. On the basis of this undertaking, BIADA is going to reinstate them, he added.

BIADA had filed the LPA challenging the decision of a single bench of the Patna High Court, which had set aside the order of termination of the employees after they refused to go on contract. Soon after their termination, the employees had resorted to strike.

Panchayats:

A single bench presided by Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi on Monday directed the state government to file a counter affidavit to writ petitions of the mukhiyas of four gram panchayats -Paspura, Ulao, Singhol and Mohammadpur Raghunathpur, challenging the government decision to bring the four panchayats under the Bhagalpur municipal corporation.

Mukhiyas Rajendra Das, Vishnu Priya, Uday Shankar Mishra and Meena Devi have challenged the government move on the ground that the gram panchayats were elected for five years under the provisions of the Constitution and Bihar Panchayat Raj Act.

Petitioners' counsel M P Gupta submitted the four gram panchayats cannot be made a part of the Bhagalpur municipal corporation before completion of their five-year term. link

Bihar to set up Land Tribunal

The Bihar government is determined to ensure speedy disposal of land related disputes. To secure this objective, a Bihar Land Tribunal would be set up. A bill to this effect was passed by the Bihar Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, July 29. At present, all cases related to land disputes ultimately reach the civil and high court. Land reform legislations are immune to constitutional review because such legislations have been put under Schedule IX of the Indian Constitution. This immunity however, does not prevent the High Court from trying cases under the Land Reforms Laws.

Over a period of time, such cases have piled up in the High Court. At present, 458 cases under the Land Ceiling Act 1961 are pending in the Patna High Court and 16 in the Supreme Court.

Similarly, cases relating to the Bihar Land Reforms Act, 1950, Bihar Tenancy Act, 1885, Bihar Prevention of Fragmentation of Land Act, 1956, Bihar Bhoodan Act, 1954, Bihar Privileged Persons Homestead Tenancy Act, 1947, are pending before the Supreme Court. Needless to say, this delay defeats the very purpose of the land reforms. The demand for setting up this tribunal has been made earlier, but it had not been realised due to some reason or the other.

The tribunal will consist of one chairman and four members. The chairman will either be a serving or a retired high court judge whereas the members would be of the rank of district judge. One administrative member will be a retired IAS of principal or secretary rank. All cases related to land disputes shall be transferred to it within a specified period of time. It is being hoped that the setting up of this tribunal would accelerate the pace of disposal of such cases, the pendency of which is a bane to land reforms measures.link

Konwar sworn in as Bihar governor

Former Assam minister Debananda Konwar was on Monday sworn in as the governor of Bihar. Patna High Court's acting Chief Justice Shiva Kirti Singh administered the oath of office and secrecy to Konwar at a simple function at Rajbhavan's Darbar Hall. Konwar, 63, whose appointment as the state governor was notified by the Rashtrapati Bhavan on June 24, succeeds R L Bhatia whose tenure ended last week.

A four-time MLA and a former finance minister in the Tarun Gogoi-led ministry of Assam, Konwar took oath in Hindi. Chief minister Nitish Kumar, Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Choudahry, Legislative Council acting chairman Arun Kumar, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, several ministers and top bureaucrats attended the swearing-in ceremony. Several relatives and friends of Konwar had also arrived from Assam for the occasion. Some Congress leaders were also present to greet him.

Later, the new governor and his wife joined Nitish and other dignitaries for high tea. Nitish said the appointment of Konwar was a good sign for better relations between Assam and Bihar. "The governor is now a Bihari and he will certainly be of great help in maintaining cordial relations between the two states," he said wishing Konwar success.

Patna University retired teachers allege raw deal

Addressing the Patna University (PU) convocation of 2004 in the presence of the then President A P J Abdul Kalam, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had announced that PU would be provided facilities on a par with Central universities even if it was not upgraded as a Central university. Today, PU is being deprived even of the facilities given to other universities in the state.

The state cabinet recently sanctioned Rs 200 crore for payment of arrears to the teachers of all the universities in the state save PU. University teachers said they fail to understand the rationale behind ignoring the genuine claim of PU teachers.

A delegation of PU Retired Teachers' Association led by its president Bakshi Vidyanand Sinha and general secretary S K Ganguli met HRD minister Hari Narain Singh on Thursday to draw his attention towards this discriminatory attitude of the government. Surprisingly, even the minister was not aware of this fact.

When the minister wanted to ascertain the fact from the HRD secretary, he was informed that PU's claim for government grants was not entertained because of late submission of the proposal from the university.

PU's claim for arrears payment had been ignored even in December 2008 when the government had reportedly sanctioned the same amount for payment to the teachers of other universities.

It may be mentioned here that the Patna High Court has directed the university as well as the state government to ensure timely payment of arrears to the teachers, especially the retired ones.

The minister assured the delegation that a tripartite meeting of PU officials, HRD officials and association's representatives would be held shortly to sort out the matter.

Meanwhile, Federation of University Teachers' Associations of Bihar (FUTAB) secretary Arun Kumar has criticised the alleged discriminatory attitude of the Magadh University authorities towards the teachers of fourth-phase constituent colleges. He said though the state government had released less grants to the university for payment of salaries to the teachers, the teachers of fourth phase have been paid only 75% of their normal salary against 94% paid to other teachers. He demanded a fair deal to all categories of teachers of the university. link

Special prelims for select BPSC candidates

The Patna High Court on Tuesday directed the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) to conduct a special preliminary test for the 48th to 52nd combined competitive examinations for state civil services for only those 94 candidates who had raised objections regarding wrong questions and answers.

A division bench comprising Justice S K Katariar and Justice K K Mandal, however, allowed BPSC to conduct the mains of the 48th to 52nd combined competitive examinations on the basis of the results of the preliminary test published earlier.

Giving the verdict on the Letters Patent Appeal (LPA) of BPSC, the division bench “modified” an earlier order of a single bench presided over by Justice Navin Sinha wherein he had set aside the entire preliminary test results and directed BPSC to hold the prelims afresh. The modified order means only a special test for the group of 94.

Pleading for BPSC, advocate general P K Shahi submitted that the 94 candidates appearing at the preliminary test held earlier ought to have raised objections soon after having gone through the questions. He added that instructions in this regard had been given in the questions.link

Over three lakh Bihar government employees to lose pay over strike

More than 3,00,000 Bihar government employees who had struck work for 33 days will not receive their salaries for this period as the state government has taken a "no work no pay" stance.

"The government is firm on not paying them salaries to ensure its policy of 'no work no pay'," an official of the state finance department said, adding that a letter to this effect had already been issued.

"Soon after the employees went on strike (last month), the government warned them to return to work or face 'no work no pay'," another official said.

The state government has, for the first time, taken a decision to deduct the salaries of its employees for the striking period as it badly affected the functioning of the offices and delayed development schemes for over a month.

The employees went on an indefinite strike Jan 7 demanding revised salaries as recommended by the Sixth Pay Commisiosn "in letter and spirit". The government refused this, citing a funds crunch. The strike ended Feb 9 following a Patna High Court order.link

Bihar government to dismiss striking employees

A month after over 300,000 of its employees went on strike, the Bihar government has decided to dismiss them, officials said on Saturday.

The government would begin to serve dismissal notices to striking employees on Saturday, said Amir Subhani, secretary, Personnel and Administrative Reforms department. The notices would be sent to the employees' homes.

According to official sources, a decision to serve dismissal notices, under section 8(2) of the Bihar Government Servant Conduct Rules, 1976, was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by chief secretary RJM Pillai.

"Some top officials were busy till late on Friday night preparing the final list of employees to be served notices," the sources said.

The move comes a day after the government told the Patna High Court that it would not hold negotiations with the associations of the striking employees until the month-long stir was withdrawn.

The employees went on an indefinite strike on Jan 7 demanding implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission in "letter and spirit" after failure of talks with Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio.

The government issued the striking employees show-cause notices on Jan 22, a day after the deadline to resume work lapsed, warning them of action including denial of salary and suspension from work. However, the striking employees did not return to work as their demands were not accepted by the government.

Modi, who refused to accept the employees' demands because of a funds crunch, had earlier ruled out any possibility of the government negotiating with the striking employees.

The strike has affected the functioning of the government departments and health services across the state. Most of the government offices, particularly the treasury and registration departments, wear a deserted look.

However, the leaders of the striking employees said that strike will continue despite the threats to dismiss them.

Earlier, the striking employees ignored the state government's "no work, no pay" warning. "We will not end our strike unless our demands are accepted by the government," said Manjul Kumar Das, general secretary of the Bihar State Non-Gazetted Employees Federation (BSNGEF).link