An astrologer's advice to Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad's son Tej Pratap has thrown his neighbours' lives out of gear. The astrologer, following vastu (a traditional Hindu system of architecture that is supposed to optimise your fortunes) rules, told the young health minister of Bihar to change the entrance to his official residence from the north-facing main gate to the south-facing back gate, reported The Telegraph.
Now this would have been an easy enough switch, but the access to the south-side is through a narrow alleyway, passing through a slum where about 100 people live. As a result, the 29-year-old minister's neighbours have complained that they can no longer allow their children to play in the alleyway, sit outside their doorways, and now even face the threat of having their shanties razed. Five such houses have already been demolished, reported the newspaper.
The slumdwellers told the newspaper that their lives have become "hell" since the minister's eight-car motorcade passes through this 200-metre stretch 10 times every day. The minister has VIP security cover that means a team of central paramilitary commandos accompany him everywhere. At other times, the minister's party colleagues also zoom to and fro the house in 3 Deshratna Marg, where the minister has set up his war room for his party and cabinet work.
"We do not understand what made Laluji's son use this narrow and dirty lane instead of the two-lane spick and span road on the other side," a slum resident told the newspaper. "Our life has become hell."
Tej Pratap won from the Mahua constituency in the 2015 state elections in Bihar.
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