Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has ordered a departmental evaluation of the works sanctioned by his former deputy Tejashwi Yadav and two different leaders of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), who have been ministers earlier than Kumar’s return to the BJP-led NDA.
Tejashwi held the portfolios of highway development, well being and concrete growth and housing when Nitish was with the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance). Different departments beneath the scanner embrace the general public well being engineering division, then with RJD’s Lalit Yadav, and the mines division, then headed by RJD’s Ramanand Yadav.
ThePrint has a replica of the letter dated 16 February, 2024 through which the extra secretary of cupboard secretariat — a portfolio held by Nitish — directed principal and extra chief secretaries to evaluation choices taken by the ministers involved from 1 March, 2023 onwards.
On 13 February, Nitish Kumar whereas looking for a vote of confidence within the state legislative meeting had made damning fees towards his rivals. “Paise ugahi kar rahe thee, sab ka jaanch karenge (they were making money, I will get it probed),” he mentioned.
Then within the Opposition benches, RJD MLA Samir Mahaseth had challenged the chief minister to probe choices taken throughout the complete 17-month interval when his get together, the Janata Dal (United) was operating a coalition authorities with the RJD.
“RJD ministers did not get special treatment. We accepted Nitish ji as the CM and participated in review meetings of our departments chaired by him. Nitish ji should come out with a scorecard to show if BJP ministers were better or RJD ministers,” Mahaseth, who held the industries portfolio within the Mahagathbandhan authorities, informed ThePrint.
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Nitish Kumar’s flip-flops
Like his political profession, Nitish has made a number of U-turns vis-a-vis his stand on allegations of corruption towards RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his relations.
In 1994, when he shaped the Samata Get together together with George Fernandes, giant withdrawals within the animal husbandry division in the course of the Lalu regime have been among the many points he cited to focus on the RJD. Lalan Singh and Shivanand Tiwari, who at the moment have been with Nitish, have been among the many petitioners who demanded a CBI probe into the fodder rip-off.
However in 2013 when Nitish stop the BJP-led NDA, allegations of corruption towards Lalu Prasad Yadav have been put in chilly storage. Once more in 2017, when the CBI raided the residence of former chief minister and Lalu’s spouse Rabri Devi in reference to the alleged IRCTC lodge lease rip-off, Nitish raised the problem once more to focus on the then deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav.
Within the run-up to the 2020 meeting polls, when Tejashwi was promising 10 lakh authorities jobs to the children of Bihar, Nitish took a swipe at him by asking whether or not the RJD would pay for it out of the wealth acquired by Lalu’s household.
One other such flip-flop was on show in 2022 when the ‘land for job’ rip-off hit headlines. “Whenever I am with Lalu ji, the BJP puts pressure on Lalu and family,” Nitish remarked.
An RJD MLA quipped that Nitish talks about allegations of corruption towards Lalu and household “only when he is not with us”.
Requested in regards to the newest order, a retired civil servant informed ThePrint: “The bureaucratic setup has hardly changed. How can you expect the same principal secretary to review a decision he was a part of?”
Former Bihar chief secretary V. S. Dubey, nevertheless, felt that there was in essence no such rule stopping civil servants from reviewing previous choices.
“The CM is entitled to review decisions taken by others and even his own decisions. A department is run by the orders of the minister and not the principal secretary, according to the rules of the executive. Even in a party, successive CMs and ministers have reviewed and even changed decisions made by their predecessors. I have been seeing it since 1966. Some reviews are conducted loudly and some silently,” Dubey informed ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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