Patna,(BiharTimes): The occasion was the inauguration of five schemes of urban development and housing department worth Rs 1,400 crore and launch of road maintenance policy of the road construction department at Samvad Bhavan on Wednesday.

But the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, somewhat went out of way to back the Patna Mayor Afzal Imam, who is locked in a tussle with the Patna Municipal Commissioner, Kuldip Narayan. He minced no words to state that the officers should respect the elected representatives and that the mahapaur (Mayor) is like Nagarpati.

The Mayor, Afzal Imam, who was then sharing the dais with the chief minister, showered praise on him. The PMC Commissioner. Kuldip Narayan, was among the audience.

While breaking his silence the chief minister has not surprised anyone as his government stand on Kuldip Narayan is known. It had moved Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court just to seek his transfer after the Patna high court has stopped it.

But the public opposition of PMC Commissioner by the highest political executive of the state, in a way, goes to prove that the state government disapproves his campaign against the 141 illegally constructed buildings––some of them of Janata Dal (United) leaders.

He said the urban local bodies are not statutory but they are constitutional bodies. “Mahapaur ko Nagarpita ka darja prapt hai” (a mayor has got the status of the guardian of the city).

Officers should respect the elected representatives. “Lekin apne adhikar kaun chorna chahta hai.” (But who wants to relinquish his power), he added.

The BJP, which was in power till June 16 last, chose to attack the chief minister for openly defending the law violators.

According to former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi the chief minister is protecting criminals in the name of democracy. With the help of urban development and housing department secretary that is, S Siddharth, Nitish is mentally harassing the Municipal Commissioner. All this is being done because many JD(U) leaders have illegally constructed multi-storeyed apartments in the city and now they are under Corporation scanner.


It needs to be recalled that one such buildings on Fraser Road belongs to controversial JD(U) MLA Anant Singh, who is considered too close to the chief minister. Buddha Inn, another hotel is owned by him, is already facing a vigilance case.

However, the chief minister while launching the scheme called 11.12.13 (Dec 11, 2013) as a historic day, and added that now the constructed roads would be repaired automatically by the agencies which have been assigned the task. It would include 9,064 km of district and state highways for which a five-year agreement has been signed with the agencies and Rs 2,579 crore was made available for the purpose. As per the estimate, Rs 28.45 lakh would be spent on the maintenance of one km of road in five years.

The road construction department has also introduced road ambulance, a patrol maintenance unit which would be GPS-based. The ambulance would be equipped with basic maintenance equipment and materials and trained highway technicians. It can be used as emergency response unit.

He also announced that separate funds would be made available for the roads damaged due to natural calamities like floods and earthquake and the same agencies would be assigned the repair work.

RCD secretary Pratyaya Amrit said this is the first of its kind road maintenance policy in the country.

Nitish also unveiled the five schemes of urban development and housing department (UDHD) worth Rs 1,412 crore.

They include Rs 581 crore for the construction of 20,721 housing units in slums, Rs 402 crore for infrastructure development in 1,402 slums, Rs 170 crore for Patna water treatment plant and another Rs 170 crore for construction of 24 nagar parishad and 53 nagar panchayat bhavans.