If you are asked who is the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar you will answer Tejaswi Yadav in all probability. However, if you go by the official website of Bihar Government — www.dycm.bih.nic.in — Sushil Modi was the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar till Sunday.
The web page apparantly had been showing Sushil Modi as Dy CM of Bihar for last two and a half years before being taken down on Sunday after a local News Channel highlighted the error.
Modi had demitted office on June 15, 2013, the day JD(U) severed ties with the BJP. On opening the website Sushil Modi, flashing an ear-to-ear smile, welcomed the users to share their experience “in Bihar’s journey towards development and progress.”
The page hosted many links including current news; however, the last news headline flashing on the screen dated back to 13/6/2013.
From the desk of the Deputy Chief Minister, a message was flashed: I welcome you to this web site to share the experience in Bihar’s journey towards development and progress. We have just embarked on this process. The journey is long and on untraveled roads. But we have already reached the first milepost of the turnaround of the State…….”
When this grave discrepancy was shown on a local TV channel, the authorities suddenly realised about the existence of such a website which they had forgotten. This website was designed and developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC).
The authorities in a huff blocked the page and linked it to the website cm.bih.nic.in, the official website of Nitish Kumar.
However, on Monday the officials resumed the dycm.bih.nic.in with a small photograph of Tejaswi Prasad Yadav, Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar with a noting: “This website is being rewritten for the new Dy Chief Minister. It will be launched shortly once everything is ready. Yadav was made deputy CM on November 20.
The most intriguing is the fact that Sushil Modi continued to be projected as deputy CM for two and a half years after he demitted office and nobody noticed it untill the news report on local news channel .
Modi laughed when informed about it. “I had no idea about it,” said the former deputy CM who spends a good time everyday on his laptop, tablet and smart phone and scans a number of newspapers and social sites.
He said the officials responsible for updating the pages were very slow and he, when in office, found them failing to do their duty on time.