Bihar govt rejects RJD MP funds

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Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has refused to accept money from the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Fund provided by political adversaries. Calling this a “regressive” step, MPs of the Opposition RJD claimed that Mr Kumar’s aim was to “monopolise” Bihar’s development.
RJD MPs Jagdanand Singh from Buxar and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh from Vaishali had forwarded Rs 50 lakhs each from their MPLAD Fund to the Bihar Electricity Board (BSEB) to purchase transformers. But the collectors of the two districts informed the leaders that the office of the BSEB chairman had refused to receive the money.
In a letter to the MP, a copy of which is with this newspaper, Buxar collector Ajay Yadav said, “In view of your approval a draft of Rs 50 lakhs was sent to the office of the chairman of BSEB through a special messenger. But the chairman’s office refused to receive the amount.” Later, the Buxar collector also forwarded a letter from the RJD MP requesting the chairman to reconsider the offer.
Lamenting the state government’s decision, Mr Jagdanand Singh told this newspaper, “My offer was rejected at a time when about 16,000 transformers are burnt in the state and out of which around 12,000 are under the Rajiv Gandhi Vidyutikaran Yojna (RGVY). People are suffering, but the government seems engaged in politicking.”
The Bihar government had in a recent communication to the Centre expressed its inability to spare funds to replace burnt transformers under RGVY, the Buxar MP added. Meanwhile, Vaishali MP Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has shot off letters to the Lok Sabha Speaker, the chairman of the Parliamentary MPLAD Committee, and the nodal minister for the said fund, Mr Sriprakash Jaiswal.
In his letters, copies of which are with this newspaper, the Vaishali MP urged the Central authorities to urgently issue directions to the state government to accept the money. “By refusing to accept the money the BSEB chairman has blocked the work done in public interest, which is unacceptable,” he emphasised in the letter.