Patna: Thousands of policemen in Bihar have decided not to celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of colours, on Friday to protest a government decision to annul all 34 decisions taken at the last three cabinet meetings by the preceding Jitan Ram Manjhi administration.
Police officers in the state are restive as the reversal of the previous government’s decisions will affect their remuneration packages.
One of the key decisions that the previous Manjhi government had taken was to grant salary for 13 months in a year to police officers, keeping in view their rigorous duty.
The move had been widely hailed by the policemen.
However, with the annulment of all decisions by the previous regime, the officers now stand to lose their handsome monetary gains, leaving them boiling with anger.
The furious police officers have now vowed not to celebrate Holi as a mark of protest.
“The Nitish Kumar government has robbed us of our joy in a single stroke. The previous government had conceded our long-pending demand after our repeated appeals,” Dheeraj Kumar a leader of Bihar Police Association told the media on Thursday
“It’s wrong to take back something after having been granted. So, now we have decided not to celebrate Holi as a mark of protest,” he added.
He announced plans for further protests if the previous government’s order was not restored by the end of this month adding the policemen in many other Indian states were already enjoying this facility.
The other populist decisions of the previous regime which now stand revoked include the granting of reservations to the economically disadvantage people from the upper caste, reservation to Dalits in road contracts valued up to Rs7 million (Dh413,026), reserving 35 per cent of post for women in government services in non-gazetted posts, appointment of one cleanliness worker in each of 46,000 villages at a payment of Rs 5,000 per month and free electricity to farmers owning five acres of agricultural land.
The other decisions by the Manjhi cabinet which have been done away with include giving fixed salaries to teachers of unaided secondary schools at par with fixed pay teachers, Rs5,000 monthly pension to journalists, increasing monthly remuneration of cooks under the mid-day meal scheme and hiking funds for lawmakers from Rs20 million to Rs30 million.
“The Nitish Kumar government has tried to force its hands into the hornet’s nest. It will cost the government dear in the coming state polls since all the decisions concerned the common man,” said a former minister in Manjhi’s cabinet, Mahachandra Prasad Singh.
He said the Manjhi government had taken all the decisions after proper deliberations and getting clearance from the departmental secretaries concerned, as well as the finance secretary.
“We don’t know the urgency behind reversing the previous government’s decision but we can say with certainty that by doing so, the present regime has indeed dug its own grave,” Singh added.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, however, defended his cabinet’s decision to scrap the 34 decisions.
“We are not raising fingers over the merits of the decisions; rather we would like to say that they were taken in an improper manner. We were left with no option but to annul them,” Kumar said on Thursday.
