`Nitish`s development claims questionable`

Patna: Claiming that the state is run by corrupt bureaucrats, a retired IAS official on Friday questioned Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar`s claims of development in the state. "The present bureaucracy in Bihar is the most corrupt one in the history of the state....How come the chief minister make tall claims about a government run by these corrupt bureaucrats?" the former principal secretary (parliamentary affairs) Pancham Lal said at a function. He also slammed top industrials and bankers for their effusive praise about development in Bihar during the NDA government and said that they perhaps sang paeans of the Chief Minister apparently under obligation of warm reception organised in their honour, he said referring to the Bihar State Industrial Investment Advisory Council (BSIIAC) members. Lal flayed Kumar for "illegally dividing" the dalit community by carving out mahadalit people from them for electoral benefits and said that he did so because the dalits were poor people. "Dalits have been the worst victim of the might of the state during the NDA rule and the people from downtrodden sections have been killed by the police in fake encounters or by painting them as the Maoists," he alleged.

He further claimed that police stations have been turned into "torture centres to commit atrocities against poor". PTI