Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary suspended 15 government officials and employees on Tuesday over alleged delays, negligence and failure to properly dispose of applications received through a state-level public grievance redressal camp under the Sahyog programme.
According to a statement issued by the chief minister’s office, the action followed the state-level Sahyog camp held on Tuesday. The suspended personnel include circle officers, block-level officials, engineers and other government employees from several departments.
The departments represented in the action are Revenue and Land Reforms, Rural Development, Urban Development and Housing, and Public Health Engineering. Their postings covered 13 districts, including Munger, Bhojpur, Katihar, Bhagalpur, Araria, Gaya, Jehanabad, Supaul, Sheikhpura, Muzaffarpur, West Champaran, Sitamarhi and Gopalganj.
The suspensions place the quality and timeliness of grievance disposal at the centre of Bihar’s administrative response. Public grievance systems are intended to provide residents with a formal route to raise problems involving land records, local development, housing, water and other government services. In this case, the state government said officials had failed to ensure proper handling of applications submitted through the Sahyog process.
Choudhary directed district magistrates, departmental secretaries and officials of the chief minister’s secretariat to examine more than whether applications were closed within the prescribed time. They have also been asked to assess the quality of the resolutions provided to applicants.
The direction separates two aspects of grievance administration that are often treated as the same: the disposal of an application and the resolution of the underlying problem. A case may be marked as processed without adequately addressing the citizen’s complaint. The chief minister’s instruction requires officials to review both the speed and substance of the response, according to the CMO statement.
Choudhary further directed that strict disciplinary action should be initiated if any official or employee is found to have deliberately delayed or mishandled an applicant’s grievance. The statement did not provide details of the individual allegations against each of the 15 suspended personnel or specify the duration of the suspensions.
The chief minister said the government’s objective was to ensure transparent, impartial and time-bound redressal of citizens’ grievances. He also instructed officials to treat applicants with respect and ensure prompt resolution of their problems.
The Sahyog programme was launched to facilitate the fair and timely resolution of public grievances. Its state-level sessions are presided over by the chief minister at the Cabinet Secretariat in Patna. The latest action brings officials from departments responsible for land, rural administration, urban development, housing, engineering and public health infrastructure within the same accountability process.
The chief minister’s office has directed district and departmental authorities to continue monitoring applications received through the Sahyog portal, including the quality of their disposal and compliance with the time-bound redressal requirement.
