School of Thought: More schools may come up in corrupt bureaucrats' houses

The IAS officer's confiscated house at Bailey Road, Patna 

Students enjoy the spoils of suspended babu – is what one of the national dailies gave a headline to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s politically brilliant idea of converting suspended 1981 batch IAS Shiv Shankar Verma’s Patna mansion into a school for Dalit children. As children were puzzled to find a new environment, a three-story house with marbles from Rajasthan and furnished with expensive interiors, Bihar chief minister was reportedly “excited” over the development and vowed to humiliate more corrupt bureaucrats in this innovative fashion.

With 16 more such cases of confiscation in the pipeline, the question is whether Bihar CM would succeed in creating more such schools.

Meanwhile, Verma has reportedly moved the Supreme Court, challenging Patna high court order of August 19, 2011, upholding the confiscation of his property under the provisions of Bihar Special Courts Act, 2009. Originally hailing from UP, Verma has been under suspension from July 2007 after Special Vigilance Unit raided his place and assets worth about Rs 1.4 crore were unearthed.

According to media reports, 361 of 3,321 primary schools in Patna district alone do not have buildings of their own. Armed with a new legislation, chief minister Kumar said he would like to see more schools run from palatial buildings of corrupt government officials.

As Kumar’s earlier move of keeping bureaucrats’ list of properties in public domain forced the Centre to do the same for its own officers, it remains to be seen whether New Delhi too comes up with a better idea of what to do with confiscated properties of corrupt bureaucrats.

Babus in Demand: NAC needs desk officer

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council is looking for a Desk Officer who could either be a serving officer on deputation or a section officer who has retired in the last six months, or is about to retire. Whereas the serving officers need to apply through the government channel, the retired officer can send his application straight to Under Secretary, NAC, 2 Motilal Nehru Place, Akbar Road, New Delhi, or email it to sravi@nic.in

Naxal sympathizer and senior IAS Pancham Lal to contest Parliamentary elections

MEET this Bihar cadre IAS Pancham Lal who is the batch-mate of some of India’s most high profile bureaucrats --- World Bank ED and possibly the next cabinet secretary Pulok Chatterji, Sonia Gandhi-chaired NAC secretary Rita Sharma and Information and Broadcasting secretary Raghu Menon just to name a few.

Pancham Lal, a 1974 batch secretary level IAS, has recently come under a major controversy when he said 90 percent cases against the Maoists are false. Not just that, he suggested withdrawal of all criminal cases against Maoists, a Times of India report said. Union home ministry has not yet reacted to his statement.

In fact, Lal, a Dalit MP and Bihar’s principal secretary of parliamentary affairs department recently sought voluntary retirement to contest assembly elections on a CPI-ML ticket from Naxal stronghold Bhojpur, but later changed his mind to wait for a while and contest the Parliamentary polls instead.

For Lal, Naxalism is not a law and order problem but a pure political issue and it can be resolved through negotiations. According to media reports, he often cites examples Bihar’s former CM Karpoori Thakur who released many Maoists.

It’s not the first time Lal became the newsmaker. A few years ago, he called in Army and police from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to take on the then Siwan MP Mohd Shahabuddin who had allegedly assaulted a district police officer. In 2002, Lal uttered derogatory remarks about politicians forcing then RJD regime to transfer him. National president of Lok Janshakti Party Ram Vilas Paswan, then a Lalu baiter, had expressed resentment over the transfer of Lal, then Saran divisional commissioner.

Gupteshwar Pandey, 1987 batch Bihar cadre IPS officer, too sought voluntary retirement to contest elections in Bihar, but he is now very much in the service. Also, Ram Chandra Prasad Singh or RCP, a 1984 batch Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s private secretary was recently nominated to Rajya Sabha on a JD(U) ticket.