Coming to the Chief Minister’s weekly Janata ka Darbar cost a Government servant dearly — Sunil Kumar, a supply inspector from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s native Nalanda district, found himself in jail.The supply inspector, whose job is to monitor the functioning of fair price shops, had come to the darbar — held on Mondays, and meant primarily for the common man — with a plea that he was being threatened by a shop owner after he detected anomalies during an inspection.Realising that the complainant was a government servant, the chief minister asked him if he had taken leave to visit Patna. Telephone calls to the Nalanda district magistrate and other officials revealed the supply inspector had neither taken official leave nor obtained his superiors’ permission to attend the darbar.The Chief Minister immediately ordered police to detain Sunil Kumar to ascertain his identity. More action followed: the Nalanda district magistrate had an FIR lodged against Sunil Kumar under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.Nalanda DM Anand Kishore said, “Inquiries revealed that he was a corrupt official. He used to demand money from fair price shop owners. An FIR was lodged in this connection by the District Supply Officer based on the statement of several dealers and he was sent to jail.”Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said there were several forums for government servants to air their grievances and that by coming to the ‘Janata ka Darbar’, they would be depriving the common man of a hearing.“While I have accepted his complaint, he has been detained to ascertain whether he’s a supply inspector or not,” was all that the Chief Minister would say.
