Hazare invited to Bihar to study `land scam`

The leader of opposition in the Bihar Assembly on Saturday asked anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare to visit the state and study the alleged land scam involving the government.

Patna: The leader of opposition in the Bihar Assembly on Saturday asked anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare to visit the state and study the alleged land scam involving the government -- months after he praised Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for his good work.

"I am sending documents related to land scam and financial irregularities of crores of rupees as revealed by the latest CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report to Anna Hazare," Abdul Bari Siddiqui of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) told a news agency.

"I am also sending an invitation to visit Bihar to personally study the ground reality before making a fresh statement in favour of Nitish Kumar," he added.

In April, Hazare had said: "The work done by chief ministers of Bihar (Nitish Kumar) and Gujarat (Narendra Modi) should be done by chief ministers of all states."

Siddiqui said: "We expect Anna Hazare to visit Bihar, meet common people, listen to their genuine grievances like rampant corruption in government offices, study land scam, and financial irregularities of hundreds of crores."

The Nitish Kumar-led government has been in trouble for the past few days after an alleged land scam came to light. The opposition charged that the state government had allotted factory plots of the Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA) to sons and daughters of the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance leaders.

The beneficiaries included ministers and legislators, and they all got the plots in violation of allotment rules.

Siddiqui also said that the Bihar government has not submitted proper accounts for a whopping Rs 15,000 crore used for development works in the state in the last nine years as per the latest CAG report. The report was tabled in the assembly Wednesday.

"The state government has been charged with indulging in financial indiscipline by submitting photostats or incomplete bills," IDS. Dhariwal, the accountant general (accounts) of the CAG, said.

According to 2008-09 CAG report, the Bihar government has not submitted official accounts for Rs 11,412 crore used for development schemes.

IANS

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