Patna,(BiharTimes): Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s campaign to promote his government’s rural development programmes has landed him in trouble.

According to newspaper Pune Mirror he is caught on the wrong side of the law for holding public screenings of Basu Bhattacharya’s film “Teesri Kasam” without seeking the required permission.

The state government had on March 5 launched a massive programme, which aims to cover around 2000 panchayats in all the 38 districts.

The report said that as part of the initiative, around 115 mobile cinema halls will visit the villages of Bihar and screen the Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman starrer which would be paused at regular intervals for ‘live advertisements’ where officials will talk about the different rural schemes.

However, the organisers did not obtain the screening permissions from the family members of the film’s producer, late Shailendra. The family members are now planning to seek a compensation of Rs 15 crores from the Bihar government for holding public screening of the film without their permission.

They have sent separate letters to the chief minister Nitish Kumar and Union information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari regarding this matter. The family is planning to sue the Bihar government if it fails to respond to the letters within seven days. “We had secured a court order in 1967, which clearly states that we are sole copyright owners of the film.

I was shocked that the Bihar government just bought DVDs from the market and decided to screen it for the villagers,” Dinesh Shailendra, the youngest son of Shailendra, was quoted in the Pune Mirror.