PATNA: A no-nonsense officer as he has always been, K K Pathak, IAS, has never been a favourite among politicians. And politicians too don’t figure in his list of favourites.

Posted as DM in Gopalganj on the orders of Election Commission during the last assembly election, the 1990 batch officer, therefore, preferred a sweeper to a politician to get a newly-constructed 65-bed hospital building inaugurated.

The event on Sunday is being talked about in Gopalganj, especially because this native district of Union minister Lalu Prasad and his wife, former CM Rabri Devi, rarely saw a public function taking place in the last over a decade without a battery of politicians "making their presence felt" all around. Not surprisingly, MLAs, MPs and former MPs are furious.

"Pathak did not even invite local politicians for the function... The hospital sweeper was given a new dress and garlanded before he cut the ribbon," fumed a politician, famed and feared before the imposition of President’s rule for his "right" and "high" connection.

Only Sadar hospital doctors and staff were present at the function, the politician, who too hails from Gopalganj, said, adding even the invitation card had the name of the sweeper printed on it. Other politicians also did not approve of the collector’s "innovative idea".

 

"After all, the hospital building was constructed with the development funds of MPs and MLAs," one politician said, explaining why politicians should have been invited. Sources said Gopalganj MP Sadhu Yadav, former Rajya Sabha MP Anil Kumar and former Gopalganj MP Raghunath Jha (now MP from Bettiah) provided money for the building from their development funds. "The DM has not only betrayed contempt for people’s representatives but has also defied the mandatory provision of putting up a plaque on the building specifying the amount spent on it and from where the money came," another RJD politician said, adding the party may raise the issue of "insult" of MPs and MLAs in Parliament. Pathak is unfazed. "I opted for a sweeper because it takes three years to get an appointment from a ‘VIP’," he told ToI and justified his decision, saying the old hospital building was in a dilapidated condition and would have collapsed in the three years’ time. The plaque, of course, would be soon put on the building. Not that Pathak did the unthinkable for the first time. In the run-up to the elections, he gave a rude shock to the state’s ruling elite when he ordered the externment of many heavyweight politicians, including Lalu’s "saala" Sadhu, from the district for, what he said, ensuring peaceful polls.