India village hosts cabinet talks

By Amarnath Tewary in Bihar

Ministers took a coach to meet the chief minister in the village

A state chief minister has made Indian history by holding a cabinet meeting in a village.

Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of the northern state of Bihar, gathered his ministers in the village of Barbighi.

Mr Kumar is on what he calls a development march across the state to "reach out to the common people".

But critics said the meeting was a public relations exercise aimed to capture votes ahead of general elections which are due soon.

Festive look

Ministers of the state's governing National Democratic Alliance took a coach from the state capital Patna for a day-trip to the village.

The cabinet meeting is normally held each Tuesday at the secretariat in Patna.

But Mr Kumar is on his Vikas Yatra (development march) across the state and he called on the ministers to meet at Barbighi village, 27km (15 miles) east of Begusarai town, where he stayed the previous night.

The chief minister said he was staying the night in villages "to reach out to the common people directly and get their feedback on his government".

He said: "It's an apolitical exercise."

The biggest complaint he had received so far was about corruption among government officials.

"I've decided to wage a war on corruption once I complete my Yatra", Mr Kumar said.

But he said the "crime" of corruption had been removed as the major problem in the state, which has been known as a India's most lawless.

The chief minister chaired the cabinet meeting and the ministers discussed 31 issues related to the welfare of the common people.

The ministers and officials returned by late evening and the chief minister continued his Vikas Yatra.

The whole village wore a festive look, with about 15 acres of mustard crop land spruced up for the chief minister's visit.

Villager Sohan Mahto told a local newspaper: "We all are very happy to have the chief minister among us and holding his cabinet meeting here. The name of our village has been registered in history."

Social scientist Saibal Gupta of the Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute told the BBC the Vikas Yatra was a "course correction" of government policies and an exercise "to see how all his government programmes have percolated to the ground level".

"The cabinet meeting being held in a village is to give the message to the common people that the government is not sitting in an ivory tower."

But critics said the trip was tied to the looming general election.

"It's a purely political march by the chief minister at the cost of government money. He is making a poll preparation and nothing else", said Shyam Rajak leader of the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Mr Rajak said "hordes of people are complaining about corrupt government officials before the chief minister himself".