Patna,(BiharTimes): A day after three-member bench of the Patna high court on Friday rejected the interlocutory application filed by Kuldip Narayan challenging his suspension from the post of Commissioner of Patna Municipal Corporation he wrote to his successor on Facebook: “May you remain on this post for next two years and convert Patna into Paris as promised by Sapno ke Saudagar––Bayan Bahadur.”
However, his Facebook post has sparked off discussion as to who is ‘Sapno ke Saudagar––Bayan Bahadur’.It was the first urban development and housing minister of the Nitish government, Ashwini Choubey (now a BJP MP), who in the very initial days in office, promised to convert Patna into Paris in no time. But that is old story.
Some people are of the view that Kuldip referred to the present urban development and housing department minister Samrat Choudhary. But then he is too new to be ridiculred in this way. He became minister only in the Jitan Ram Manjhi cabinet after crossing over from the RJD early in 2014.So who is the loud-mouthed dream merchant whom he is trying to target?
Much depends on the way one look at the whole issue. Many political observers are of the view that he is directly aiming at former chief minister Nitish Kumar, who promised to convert Bihar and its capital city. It was the latter who invited renowned town-planner Hafeez Contractor and talked about changing the whole face of Patna. It was the the CM, who talked about satellite towns around Patna and building huge commercial and residential complexes on the land reclaimed after the shifting of Ganga. And it was he who sought huge fund from the Manmohan Singh government to get build Ganga Expressway.
Though Patna is yet to witness a big face-lift––yes some cosmetic changes have come up––the city actually got reduced into a concrete jungle. One of the Patna Municipal Commissioners, Senthil Kumar, violating all norms and rules, almost in one go (2009-10), gave green signal to hundreds of concrete apartments. Today those very apartments have become a bone of contention.
Most of the builders involved in these illegal construction were close to the then ruling JD(U) and BJP. So none of the leaders of these two parties can wash their hands of from this urban chaos caused by illegal construction.It is also true that one of the most important names in this regard is none else but of Anant Singh, the controversial Mokama MLA, and once considered as the blue-eyed boy of former chief minister Nitish Kumar.
Anyway Kuldip has not named anyone, but it is for the people of Bihar to draw his or her own conclusion.But then the court has its own compulsion. The ruling came after the present chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi had already announced that he was withdrawing suspension after a delegation of IAS Association called on him immediately after the state government order on December 12 last year. On January 20 Manjhi signed an order to revoke his suspension. However, an official notification has not yet been issued.
