Many Ministers Absent During Nitish Kumar's Surprise Visit To Offices

Several top ministers of the Bihar government were found absent from their offices when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar paid a surprise visit to their offices on Tuesday.

The Chief Minister, who expressed his unhappiness at the state of attendance, also gave orders asking all ministers and government officials to reach their respective offices by 9.30 am.

Mr Kumar paid surprise visits to Vikas Bhavan (New Secretariat) and Visvesvaraya Bhawan (technical secretariat), located on Bailey Road in the state capital.

During his visit to Vikas Bhavan, Mr Kumar found that some of the ministers were not present inside their chambers.

The ministers who were not present in their chambers included: Chandra Shekhar (Education), Alok Kumar Mehta (Sugarcane Industries minister), Samir Kumar Mahaseth (Industries), Sheela Kumari (Transport) and Kumar Sarvjeet (Agriculture). According to officials, the Chief Minister expressed unhappiness over their absence.

The Chief Minister reached Vikas Bhawan at 9.30 am. The Chief Minister inspected chambers of ministers and senior officers and offices of Education, Health, Industry, Agriculture, Sugarcane Industries, Road Construction, Prohibition, Excise & Registration departments and inquired about the attendance of ministers, officers and employees.

When the Chief Minister visited the state Education minister's chamber and found him absent, the former immediately spoke to the latter over the phone and asked the reason for not reaching the office at 9.30 am, officials said.

Later, the Chief Minister visited Visvesvaraya Bhawan, the building houses more than six departmental offices, including the state planning board, rural works department, road construction department, minor water resources department, etc.

"I want all officers to reach their respective offices by 9.30 am. Those who are found absent during my inspection, are immediately asked the reason for the absence", Mr Kumar told reporters after inspecting the offices of several departments at Visvesvaraya Bhawan.

The Chief Minister said from the year 2008 to 2012-13, he used to visit his office at the main secretariat at 9.30 am, on a regular basis. "Now, I have decided to visit government offices on a regular basis", he said.

Earlier, the Chief Minister on September 20 had inspected the main secretariat that houses the offices of key departments like Cabinet Secretariat, Home, General Administration, Finance, Planning and Development as well as the offices of chief secretary and development commissioner and additional chief secretaries.

He had said, "I will visit my office at the main secretariat three days a week and office at the CM secretariat two days a week and inspect the presence of officials". Though the Chief Minister had expressed his unhappiness over the absence of the officers and employees during his visit to the main secretariat, he did not take any punitive action against the absent staff.

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