The alleged land scam in Bihar involving allotment of prime industrial plots to relatives of ruling NDA politicians and top officials set off fierce political blame games on Wednesday with the Opposition parties MLAs demanding chief minister Nitish Kumar’s resignation and a probe into the land allotments by the CBI.
While the Cabinet ministers and NDA politicians under a cloud for the alleged irregularities denied any wrongdoing, Mr Kumar’s order for a probe by the chief secretary instead of his making an elaborate statement on the allegations in the Assembly was dubbed by the Opposition parties — the RJD, LJP, Congress and the Left parties — as a ploy to eventually bury the scam. The Opposition RJD’s leaders took to Patna’s streets to burn Mr Kumar’s effigies and said they would intensify agitations unless a CBI probe was swiftly ordered.
The ongoing Monsoon Session of the Assembly had to be adjourned twice on its third day on Wednesday as the Opposition legislators chanted anti-government slogans and shouted their demands for immediate cancellation of the Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority’s (BIADA) land allotments, Mr Kumar’s resignation and a CBI probe into the alleged scam. “Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan had to resign over allegations of a land scam. The Bihar government is trying to hide its massive wrongs by not handing over this scam to the CBI for probe,” said Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. “High-profile people with little industrial background were allotted prime plots at throwaway prices without following any rules,” he added.
LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, who met President Pratibha Patil in Delhi to apprise her of the alleged scam, was ridiculed by the ruling JD(U) as a political spent force and non-entity desperate for a self-revival.
“Some people are firing from guns placed on the media’s shoulders trying to realise their twisted political ambitions. They are meeting the President. Who are these people? They are the same people who were thoroughly rejected by Bihar’s electorate,” said JD(U) spokesman and RS member Shivanand Tiwary.