Patna,(BiharTimes): On the eve of the inauguration of Bihar Museum by chief minister Nitish Kumar in Patna senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Thursday asked his former boss to make public the documents pertaining to financial transactions in its construction.
Questioning the timing of its inauguration when only children gallery is complete the BJP leader said Nitish should have waited for the completion of the museum and added that he had objected to its construction in 2011 during his tenure as deputy CM.
He charged that the state government had failed to spent Rs 28 crore meant for the development of Nalanda Heritage allocated by the 13th Finance Commission while it spent only Rs 14 crore out of Rs 50 crore released by the Centre for the development of archaeological sites.
Taking the help of recent Patna high court observations the former deputy chief minister said its consultancy and master plan preparation work was awarded to M/s Lord Cultural Resources, Toronto, through a letter on May 31, 2011. The Rs 4.30 crore (quoted by the agency) was accepted as the ‘total contract fee’ and the manner of payment was also mentioned.
But, according to SuMo the counter affidavit filed by the state government on February 18, 2015, said: “LCR was appointed as consultant for preparing the master plan and its allied components and it was awarded contract worth Rs 22.17 crore and paid Rs 14.85 crore."
Modi, who was till June 16, 2013 the finance minister of Bihar, alleged that even after M/s Lord Cultural Resources, was appointed for the entire project, some more consultants such as Maki & Opolis Mumbai, M/s Kingsmn Fairtech, the Fabrication Agency India and M/s Lopage Design were awarded contracts worth Rs 41.28 crore, Rs 31.36 crore and Rs 2.65 crore, respectively.
Quoting the Patna high court SuMo said: “the construction contract of Rs 280 crore was awarded to M/s L&T, Chennai. The government spent about Rs 220 crore on consultancy and other such activities."
This is for the first time that SuMo has said that his party, then sharing power, was opposed to the construction of such a huge Museum in Patna, not far away from the old one.
The truth, however, is that it was the former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who for the first time publicly opposed the construction of Bihar Museum as well as Conventional Centre and called it waste of public money.