Bihar’s worst floods, yet most babus sit idle

PATNA: There is no shortage of bureaucrats in Bihar. Yet, only a chosen few are engaged in the biggest-ever relief operations in flood-hit areas of the state. The rest have been mysteriously kept away from the crisis areas. In the absence of any defined assignment, most are keeping themselves abreast of the situation through news bulletins.

The bureaucrats, though, are willing to involve themselves in the massive humanitarian mission underway. But the government doesn’t seem to be paying heed.

‘‘I want to be involved in relief operations. I want to share my experience at this time of crisis,’’ said a senior IPS officer. A number of senior IAS officers with years of experience are virtually sitting idle in the secretariat. There is little work with hardly any official assignments. ‘‘I am drawing a hefty salary for doing nothing. The government doesn’t consider me fit for such exigency,’’ complained a secretary rank bureaucrat.

At least a dozen secretaries have admitted that a ‘‘culture of silence’’ prevails in the corridors of power. ‘‘Those who have dared to utter a word which is not suited to the ‘Raja’ have been relegated to the background,’’ said a disgruntled senior IPS officer. The list of those who have dared to speak out and have paid a heavy price is long.

Till date, the government does not have a full-fledged disaster management secretary. The over-burdened principal secretary road construction department R K Singh has had additional charge of disaster management department during the past six months.

Bihar State Bridge Corporation MD, Pratayay Amrit, has recently been assigned as additional commissioner of disaster management department. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has the disaster management department portfolio.

Senior IAS officers posted in ‘‘innocuous’’ departments allege that they have been deliberately kept away from prestigious departments. Bihar’s devastating floods, they point out, require the services of the state’s large contingent of experienced bureaucrats at ground zero to monitor the mammoth rescue operation.

Instead of sending experienced officials, the government chose to deploy state cadres officials (some of them are on the verge of retirement) to monitor the relief operations.

The whole exercise of appointing special DMs in flood hit districts has turned futile. During last year’s flood, the government had also appointed special DMs which hardly made any difference, an official pointed out. ‘‘Special DMs and disaster management department are engaged in compiling laundry list statistics rather than rushing relief materials,’’ said an official.