Bihar Minister offers to quit over dispute with bureaucrat

Bihar Social Welfare Minister Madan Sahani on Thursday offered to resign, levelling serious allegations on the department's Principal Secretary Atul Prasad.

"Atul Prasad has been sitting on the post of Principal Secretary for the last 4 years and has destroyed the department. He has ignored my suggestions during transfer postings. He should explain what his achievements are during his tenure in this department.

"The department is run by bureaucrats and I am not having options other than resigning from the post," Sahani said.

"We have complained to higher authorities about his approach in the department but no one has taken action on it," he added.

Sources have, however, said that the dispute between Sahani and Prasad happened during transfer postings of CDPOs and other officials of the department.

Sahani wanted transfer posting of officials according to his choice. As per the norms, reshuffle of officers can be possible only after once an officer has completed three years or more at one place. Sahani was allegedly wanting to transfer all officials including those who have not completed three years tenure. His recommendations were refused by Prasad. This was the actual reason for the dispute between him and Prasad, resulting in few transfer postings in the month of June.

As per the norms, the Bihar government used to transfer officials and personnel of every department in June every year.-IANS