With the Bihar Public Grievance Redressal Act coming into effect from May 1, the 8-year-old practice of Janata Darbar held at the CM residence would be discontinued. “Under the new scheme of things the public will get legal right for the redress of their grievances,” said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Nitish is the only CM in the country who not only hold direct contact programme with the people but institutionalised the mechanism of giving attention to the public grievances and forwarding them to the departments concerned for solution. However, the CM who admitted that Janata Darbar exercise was not up to his expectations and he has now provided legal guarantee to the people through the new Act.
The Janata Darbar which was started by Nitish in April 2006 will possibly hold last session on April 18. It was held first, second and third Mondays every month except during the Assembly session or in absence of the CM. The programme became a big hit and as the CM himself admitted that he got inspiration to launch many new schemes for different sections of the society from this programme.
The CM said that grievance redress mechanism will be the first in the country and the people can submit their petition on three levels: sub-division, districts and department wise. For filing petition to particular departments they have to come to State Capital. In Patna a new office will soon be established.
To monitor and see the functioning on different level, the CM himself will make surprise visits to different blocks and district headquarters.