Bihar takes extra care of its Babus

Retired and soon-to-be-retired bureaucrats have never had it so good in Bihar, as the Nitish Kumar government goes out of its way to accommodate them in state-run institutions.

Neelmani walked into the SHRC a few months after his retirement from the post of DGP. He retired as DGP on August 31, 2011 and took over as member of Bihar State Human Rights Commission on December 1, 2011.

Incidentally, when the worst violation of human rights took place in Bhajanpur village under Forbesganj sub-division of Araria district on June 3, 2011, he was the DGP of the state. An infant and a pregnant woman were shot dead and a youth was stomped to death by a cop whose act was caught in camera.

Both Choudhary and Pillai also served as the chairman of BP SC, a few months after retirement. Chaudhary got his second post-retirement posting as Chief Information Commissioner. Saha was the Bihar development commissioner.

He was scheduled to retire in March 2013 but he chose voluntary retirement because of ‘personal’ reasons before present Chief Secretary Navin Kumar took charge.

Saha, reportedly upset at losing out to Navin for the post of chief secretary, is now the chairperson of the BP SC.He was appointed on November 16, 2011 replacing R J M Pillai.

Vijayraghavan, who superannuated on August 31, 2009, later served as advisor (investment) to the chief minister. He became the state information commissioner in 2010 and is also among the two information commissioners.

Panjiar, after serving as the home secretary of Bihar, became water resources secretary at the Centre. He is now the chairman of Bihar State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

Shakil Ahmed, who recently completed his term as the Information Commissioner at Bihar State Information Commission, is also an ex-bureaucrat along with PN Narayanan another former senior IAS officer.

Shiv Chandra Jha, who was DGP for a brief time, has been now serving as member of disaster management committee and Rajyavardhan Sharma, a former ADG police got appointed as member Bihar Public Service Commission.

“These appointments are just only to oblige bureaucrats who were close to the political power. This would certainly have a demoralizing effect on the honest and upright officers” said a former senior civil servant. “This trend would make senior officers more pliable and a culture of sycophancy would get a fillip.”

Political executives find more comfortable with former civil servant because of their long working relation with them for years and typical mindset to be accommodative with their masters.

Perhaps it appears that the whole process is not only to rehabilitate blue-eyed officers but at times to get control over many quasi-goverment institution like Information Commission and similar other institutions indirectly.