Patna: In an initiative towards weeding
out corruption, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday made it
mandatory for public servants to declare their assets every
year.
"Circulars have been issued to the Grade I to Grade III
public servants, making it mandatory for them to declare their
assets every year," Kumar told reporters.
He said his cabinet colleagues have also decided to
declare their assets.
Listing priorities before the government after NDA pulled
off a landslide victory in Bihar, Kumar said he would soon
meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking the Centre`s help
for `Mission Develop Bihar`.
"The Prime Minister has congratulated me on the
victory and also promised full cooperation and support...
there are several issues to which the Centre`s support is
required and I will rake up the issues during my meeting with
the PM," he said.
Kumar was apparently referring to his demand for special
category status to Bihar and removal of restrictions on
manufacturing ethanol from sugarcane juice.
He hoped that the Centre would fully cooperate with the
NDA government in making Bihar one of the most developed
states in India by 2015.
Referring to the nine-day winter session of the two
houses of the state legislature, which was adjourned sine
die today, he said the session was short because it was
called under constitutional obligations, following formation
of a new government.
"We will soon be convening the budget session for
presenting full budget for 2011-12 for Bihar... it will be
quite a long session", he said.
He reiterated the state government would bring a new
legislation in the form of Right to Service bill for helping
people in the matters related to public utilities.
Advocating that provisions for allocation of funds for
local area development of legislatures should be scrapped, the
chief minister said the department concerned should be engaged
for development of their constituencies.
He said he had raised the issue during the meeting of
National Democratic Alliance and several senior leaders had
lent support to him in this connection.
Kumar said the consolidated amount of this head
could be utilised for the purpose of executing major
development projects.
Referring to the demand for rechristening Patna as
Patliputra, Kumar said he did think it was appropriate at this
stage.
Pointing out that Madras was rechristened as Chennai to
meet the long -standing demand of people, Kumar referred to
the issue of naming the new rail station near Digha at Patna
as Patliputra rail station.
PTI
