BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday said it was unfair on part of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to take credit of all the good things happened during the NDA regime. He also lamented that after the JD(U) severed ties with the BJP and ruling the State alone with the support of the RJD and the Congress, development and governance has become a big casualty.
Reacting to the launching of Bihar@2025 on governance by Nitish, Modi said, “BJP has an equal credit for developing Bihar during the past one decade. “We deserve as much credit as the JD(U) and Nitish for development of Bihar,” said Modi and added that all the good things, including growth rate, good governance, infrastructure development and improvement in health and other sectors happened between 2005-13 when it was NDA Government headed by Nitish. Modi claimed it was because of the exceedingly well works by the NDA Government that people rewarded the two parties giving over three-fourth seats in 2010 Assembly polls.
The BJP leader’s reaction was also in the backdrop of Nitish being projected as CM face of the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance because of his development and governance record. He asked if he was really a ‘vikas purush’ then why Bihar was going down in growth rate and development matrix and challenged the CM to spell out a single development scheme that his Government launched after June 2013 when JD(U) walked out of the NDA.
“Nitish has lost control over governance and Bihar is going back to the pre 2005 period when the State was known for lawlessness, crime and anarchy. The senior BJP leader took the Chief Minister to task for non-distribution of pension to 63 lakh beneficiaries comprising aged people, widows and physically challenged persons since December last year under schemes being run by the Centre and the State Governments.
The State Government, Modi alleged, has failed to utilise Rs970 crore allocated by the Centre under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) even as rural roads lie in a shambles. The State Government was happy with earning interest from the funds lying unused in banks as the officials have no time to withdraw the money and give it to the concerned departments to undertake construction and repair of rural roads, said the former Finance Minister.