Nothing to do with finalization of Prez’s programme: Nitish

Patna,(BiharTimes): Chief minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday that his government has no role to play in fixing the date of the Presidential visit later this month.

Reacting strongly to BJP’s allegation that Pranab Mukherjee’s visit on October 26-27, has deliberately been planned to disrupt the Hunkar Rally Nitish said the visit has been finalized by the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the state government has nothing to do with it.

Both deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and party national vice president, Dr C P Thakur, strongly criticized the trip. Party’s MLA, Nitin Navin, went a way ahead to write to the President requesting him to cancel his visit to facilitate Narendra Modi’s Hunkar Rally.

Nitish, on the other hand, said that sometimes states are asked to finalize the dates of the President’s visit and sometimes Rashtrapati Bhavan itself decides. In this case, the programme has been finalized by the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the state government was intimated about it in the last week of July, he added.

The chief minister further said the state government is not organizing IIT-Patna convocation on October 26 nor the visit to Chandwa in Bhojpur district on October 27 to unveil the statue of former deputy Prime Minister Jagjivan Ram.

The Chandwa programme has in fact been organized by the Union ministry of social justice, he added.
The chief minister said that if the BJP has any problem with the dates, they should approach the proper place. The state government has neither any role in it nor can it change the programme.