By Abdul Wahid Azad,
During the last few years some positive changes took place in the Indian province of Bihar which was earlier dubbed as BIMARU state of India. The changes on the development front brought by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of JD-U are being appreciated within and outside the state. But chronic corruption continues to plague the state machinery despite change of guard.
Nitish govt vs. Lalu-Rabri regime
Economic development had taken a backseat during the reign of ex-Chief Ministers Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi of RJD with chaos prevailing everywhere in all the institutions and segments of the state. The current Nitish regime is trying its best to come out of the shadow of the previous Lalu-Rabri regime under which the state was pushed towards institutional backwardness of its organs which bring development to the masses. However, the deprived masses are yet to come out of the pain and anguish that they had been subjected to as the chronic corruption continues to plague the state machinery despite the change of guard.
This December during the Eid-ul-Azha festival I was at my village in Champaran district where I fortunately got the opportunity to interact with lots of common people and my co-villagers who mostly belong to lower and lower middle class segment of the society.
Govt teaching job on a price
The prime attraction of people of this class is government jobs which, despite so many attractive job opportunities in the private sector, are still considered the most coveted thing. The news about appointment of teachers was talk of the town. People seemed happy that Nitish government has in the last three years appointed 4 lakh teachers and is in the process of hiring 2 lakh more. A good number of beneficiaries are also Muslims who are considered backbone of Lalu’s vote bank.
Primary teachers are being appointed at Panchayat level while the High school teachers at the district level. For the hiring authorities, both political and government, from village to district levels, this is nothing short of winning a lottery. The old politician-bureaucrat nexus and red-tapism are as young and strong as they were during the RJD era. And here seems to have failed the Nitish government also, though it claims to have provided a clean government. Given the corruption at rampage in so massive way, it is difficult to say the authorities in Patna, and to be specific the chief minister, are not aware of the ground reality.
For such appointments a list has already been prepared on the basis of marks that the candidate has scored in his academic career. For one seat 10 names will be announced. As the matter and the procedure are very localised people know what positions they are going to have in the merit list.
Mukhiya the main culprit
The primary concern of people is the dubious role that the Mukhiya can play in jeopardising their job prospect. The Mukhiyas are demanding about 1-3 lakh of rupees from the prospective candidates who are on the merit list to guarantee the success of their candidature. The fear of the people stems from the fact that the Mukhiya has the power to show any of the listed candidates absent at the time of appointment.
During the last appointments also people with low scores were allegedly given the jobs nullifying the chance of the prospective candidates. The government is conducting enquiry about 4000 such cases in which jobs were allegedly given on fake mark sheets and certificates. As such the Mukhiyas have virtually announced that if people, even those who have maximum marks, want the jobs safely without falling into any litigation they should deposit Rs 1 lakh with them.
The surprise element of this episode is that people are more than willing to fulfill the demand of the Mukhiya without any fuss or complaint even when they are topping the merit list in terms of marks.
They do not want to complain the higher authorities about this corruption as still they reel under the psychological shadow of corruption of the heydays of the Lau-Rabri regime. Interestingly many people say that when the Mukhiya puts a solar light on the village roads he earns around 20,000 of rupees so if he is asking for 1 lakh rupees for giving a government job there is nothing wrong in it.
Nitish fails to break politician-bureaucrat nexus
Thanks to the inability of the powers-that-be to check corruption, the market of commission and brokerage trade has gained deep and larger grounds in the state. Last time during the appointment when the Mukhiya showed the prospective candidates absent and gave the job to undeserving candidates he had demanded just Rs 30,000-1 lakh but this time the bribe market has seen three fold jump. If for the recruitment of 2 lakh teachers Rs 2 lakh is given in bribe for each seat the total brokerage earned from the transaction stands around Rs 300 crore. So it could be calculated that massive amount people have spent just to garner government jobs in the last three years.
This is true that the Nitish government in the last three years took revolutionary steps in trying to improve the conditions of the people of Bihar. The government tried its best to extend relief to the flood affected people of the state who were exposed to one of the deadly floods in the human history. For building 1000 kms of modern roads 5000 crore of rupees were spent. Rs 7000 crore were spent to improve the electricity and power infrastructure of the state. New doctors were appointed and to make them more efficient mobile phones were given to them.
Nitish himself is claiming that during his three year tenure the corruption graph has fallen and the role of commission agents and brokers in the governance process has been curtailed. But is the government aware of what is going on behind the scene? If it is really aware then what is it doing?
In political circles Nitish Kumar is seen as an honest politician but it seems that he has not been successful in breaking the bureaucrat-politician nexus. The red-tapism continues to haunt the governance in this part of the country and despite his efforts Nitish has not been successful in breaking the nexus. Nitish Kumar needs to rethink about his strategy. With more vigour he should launch honest efforts to bring the state of Bihar on the path of economic development and root out corruption.
(The author is a Delhi-based journalist, can be contacted at [email protected])