Nitish flags off new buses, borrows money for ticket

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was on Wednesday embarrassed when a woman conductor of a government bus he flagged off issued him a Rs. 5 ticket for a ride. Mr. Kumar had to borrow the money from one of the officials accompanying him to buy the ticket. Earlier, he flagged off 140 new buses of the Bihar State Transport Corporation.

Mr. Kumar admitted that he felt embarrassed seeing dirty Patna and warned officials to keep it clean otherwise the government itself would take some steps to clear the mess.

“Whenever some VIPs come to meet me they point out towards dirt and garbage littered in Patna. I feel embarrassed and such adverse comments also belittle all the development work done by the State government. It is very sad,” the Chief Minister said addressing a function after inaugurating a number of projects of the Urban Development Department. Patna Mayor Afzal Imam was present at the programme.

Mr. Kumar said he got fed up while reading regular news about the clash between the Mayor and Patna Municipal Corporation officials. “If the situation does not improve, the government could step in and use the Patna Municipal Corporation’s last right to clean Patna,” said Mr. Kumar, referring to the working of municipal corporations of Mumbai and other cities. Recently, in a survey, Patna was ranked among the dirtiest cities of the country, while Mysuru was declared the cleanest city.

The Chief Minister also listed the steps the State government and the Patna High Court taken to control noise pollution in the city.