Manjhi sends away secretary loyal to Kumar

Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Thursday hit back at the Nitish camp, by sending his secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh, an IAS officer of 1996-batch, to his parent cadre of Odisha.

Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Thursday hit back at the Nitish camp, by sending his secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh, an IAS officer of 1996-batch, to his parent cadre of Odisha.

The decision to revert Singh to his parent cadre is viewed as yet another blow by a defiant Manjhi to his bête noire Nitish Kumar.

Singh is considered close to Kumar and had served as Patna DM before being posted as secretary to the chief minister with additional charge as MD of the Bihar State Power Transmission Company Limited.

In a bid to strengthen his vote bank, Manjhi rained largesse on farmers, including small farmers owning barely five acres of land, and announcing free electricity for them. He also said if he got a second chance in office, the cap of five acres would be doubled.

Manjhi instructed officials to ensure that funds meant for SC/ST under special component should not lapse, as it happens every year. “Those having less than five acres of land should get 80% subsidy — an increase of 20% from the existing 60%,” he added.

“If people have to manage electricity bills by paying bribe to officials, it would be better to make it free for the needy one. Against a bill of Rs 5,000 they pay a bribe of Rs 2,000 to officials to settle it and the state government gets nothing in its kitty,” he said.

Exhorting the farmers to be wary of middlemen, he asked the officials to give direct subsidy on ISI-brand farm equipment purchases directly to farmers.

Manjhi also said he was not in favour of large-scale entry of multi-national companies into Bihar, as it would not benefit farmers.