Acting for the first time on its promise of opening schools on the confiscated properties of corrupt government officials, the Bihar government on Saturday passed orders for work to begin on setting up a primary school in the house of a former transport official found guilty of corruption.
The move, result of a much-publicised anti-corruption law that was chief minister Nitish Kumar’s brainchild in his previous regime, is expected to silence Bihar’s Opposition parties and critics of the JD(U)-BJP coalition government Kumar leads. Besides, the exemplary step would go some way in discouraging government officials from indulging in corrupt practices.
Bihar education minister P.K. Sahi on Saturday passed orders that work be started to open a primary school in the house of former motor vehicles inspector (MVI) Raghuvansh Kunwar at Chaira village in Samstipur district. The order came a day after a special anti-corruption court in Patna asked for confiscation of Mr Kunwar’s properties. The court, which had been holding a speedy trial of the disproportionate assets cases against Mr Kunwar, asked the government to comply with the confiscation order in three months, but an eager government moved doubly quick to set an example.
Mr Nitish Kumar had reiterated the promise of opening schools on the confiscated properties of corrupt public servants in every public meeting he addressed during the month-long campaigns for the Assembly polls.
Mr Kunwar, who first joined the government workforce as an assistant engineer in 1983, had allegedly amassed properties worth close to `1 crore till he was caught red-handed by the vigilance bureau while accepting a bribe of `50,000 in September 24, 2008.