Logjam in Bihar edu dept as minister stays off office

Chandrashekhar and additional chief secretary (education) K K Pathak had entered into a turf war that eventually led to a heated exchange through letters last month. RJD chief Lalu Prasad sent Chandrashekhar to meet chief minister Nitish Kumar on July 6 to resolve the matter, but nothing has changed since then.

A piquant situation is prevailing in Bihar’s education department, where its minister Chandrashekhar has not attended office for over 22 days now following a showdown with his top bureaucrat, who has been pushing with a raft of decisions on his own, though his financial powers are limited.

Bihar education minister Chandrashekhar. (HT)

Chandrashekhar and additional chief secretary (education) K K Pathak, both of whom being no strangers to controversies, had entered into a turf war that eventually led to a heated exchange through letters last month.

As matters came to a head, RJD chief Lalu Prasad sent Chandrashekhar to meet chief minister Nitish Kumar on July 6 to resolve the matter, but nothing has changed since then.

With the minister out of the scene, and not ready to even speak on why he is not attending his office, ACS Pathak is running the department. But as per rules, the top official’s financial powers are limited. He can only authorise spending of up to ₹5 crore. For spending above ₹5 crore and up to ₹15 crore, the approval of the minister is necessary. Beyond ₹15 crore, the cabinet approval is required.

An education department official, who didn’t want to be named, said that a proposal sent to the finance department was returned twice a few days ago, as it did not have the approval of the department minister despite insistence of the education department’s top bureaucrat that it was not required, as it was a budgeted amount.

“Later, it was sent to the minister at his residence through secretary for approval, which is awaited,” said the official.

Despite repeated attempts, the minister could not be contacted, though he attends political programmes of his party and spends time in his constituency. He also attends cabinet meetings, but only refrains from going to the office.

Chandrashekhar’s predecessor Vijay Kumar Choudhary, who is now the state’s finance minister, said it was the discretion of the minister how he wanted to dispose of files. “He can dispose of files from his residence also,” he said.

Finance secretary Arvind Choudhary said, “Minister’s approval is usually obtained prior to sending the proposals to the finance department. There are clearly laid down rules.”

This is the first time that the education portfolio in the Nitish Kumar government has moved away from his party JD-U after the change in the government in August last year. And right from the very beginning, Chandrashekhar, who is from RJD, has been in controversies, starting with his remarks on “Ramcharitmanas”.

Pathak, who was recently shifted to the education department, is also not new to controversies. Earlier this year, he was in news after a video clip purportedly showing him using abusive language with officials at a meeting began circulating on the social media.

The ACS has been highlighting lack of upkeep and amenities in government schools and asking headmasters to utilise funds provided for the purpose but are unspent.

Last week, Pathak had written to all the district magistrates that he had vested administrative and financial powers with the headmasters to spend up to ₹5 lakh, as the condition of government schools in Bihar was not good in terms of upkeep, provision of basic facilities like drinking water and toilets and academic atmosphere, even though ₹1400 crore remain unutilised in the bank accounts of schools, apart from the account of Centre’s flagship Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA).

Pathak was not available for his response on the situation in the education department.