As the lok Sabha elections are approaching fast, the Bihar Congress is trying to improve its electoral fortunes by highlighting the “good work” the UPA Government has done for the State.
To begin with, the two major railway projects — the coach maintenance workshop at Harnaut in Nalanda district, the home district of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the wheel factory at Belapur near Chhapra — will be inaugurated in April.
Sources claimed that both these railway projects were ready for operations nearly six months back but the projects got the real push only now when the time gap for the general elections has narrowed down further.
Talking to mediapersons after the State party coordination committee meeting at the Congress headquarters at Sadaquat Ashram in Patna on Saturday, Bihar AICC in-charge Gulchain Singh Charak and AICC secretary Sanjay Nirupam said that the party had taken up the matter with the Railway Ministry and preparations were on to inaugurate both the major railway projects next month.
Nirupam said that he would like that either Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Congress president Sonia Gandhi inaugurates both these projects.
Similarly, “Bhoomi Pujan” will be performed for construction of the Central University building at Gaya soon. Another Central University will come up at Motihari.
Both senior Congress leaders said that the party would also persuade the Government to release funds “generously” for opening Kishanganj centre of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in the State.
The Congress accused the Nitish Kumar Government of curtailing powers of mukhiyas and not transferring full administrative and financial powers to the Panchayati Raj institutions, thus hampering the implementation of Centrally-sponsored schemes like MNREGA and SSA in the State.
The dominance of bureaucracy over the ground level Panchayati Raj functionaries is checking the flow of advantages of Centrally-sponsored schemes to the intended beneficiaries in the State, they claimed. The issue of constitutions of booth-level committees was also discussed at the meeting to bolster the position of the Congress in the next lok Sabha elections.
Claiming that law and order situation has deteriorated in the last few months, both leaders said that the party will expose the Nitish Government on its alleged failures on other fronts too.
Earlier, the coordination committee meeting started on a disturbing note as a group of Congress workers raised slogans in protest against the induction of some leaders in the committee though they allegedly did not fulfil the eligibility criteria.
When pointed out that several senior Congress leaders did not attend the coordination committee meeting, Charak and Nirupam said that seven were out of Patna while the showcause notices would be issued to those who did not attend the meeting despite their presence in the State capital.
AICC had constituted an 18-member coordination committee to run the State unit as the State party executive committee has yet to be constituted. Even district level committees have not been constituted in seven districts of the State so far.
