Patna,(BiharTimes): On November 24, 2017 Nitish Kumar had completed 12 years in power––of course barring nine months of interlude in which his protégé Jitan Ram Manjhi ruled.
In this 12 years at least a dozen multi-crore scams and rackets were ‘unearthed’ but thanks to the media they hardly became the talk of the town.
Besides, nobody has been convicted. This is happening when chief minister claims to have a clean image. He started his career with the move to confiscate property of all the corrupt officials.
The scams which took place during the Nitish era is certainly many times more than 15 years rule of Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi.
“The quantum of amount embezzled during the Nitish era is many times more than fodder, bitumen, medicine, B Ed and other scams which took place during the Lalu-Rabri era. In all of them either politicians or senior bureaucrats have been involved but nobody has gone to jail. Only Rs 1,300 crore Srijan Scam is being investigated by the CBI,,” commented senior political observer while talking to the BiharTimes.
Curiously, some of those named in the scams are people hand-picked by chief minister Nitish Kumar, he further said while adding the name of the then BSEB chairman, Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh, whose wife Usha Sinha is a former JD(U) MLA.
Incidentally, two of the major scams have come up only recently, after Nitish formed the government with the BJP in July last. They are Srijan Scam, in which the name of several NDA leaders have also figured, and Toilet Scam.
In February this year Bihar Staff Selection Commission exam racket was unearthed leading to the arrest of its chairman, Sudhir Kumar, a senior IAS, and its secretary Parmeshwar Ram. The latter continued to occupy the post (till his arrest) in spite of past allegations.
While Nitish has repeatedly claimed that strict action would be taken against all those who have looted public funds, yet scams are coming up quite regularly with hardly any action being taken. Now it is said that Srijan type fund transfer scam is likely to come up in several other districts. Banks is already one of them.
Yet most of the scams are being investigated by the Special Investigative Teams (SITs) of the Bihar Police or state vigilance bureau and not by the CBI. Little progress has been made in most of them.
Interestingly, some of the officials like former PMC Commissioner, Senthil Kumar, is comfortably placed though in February 2010 he was charged with giving approval to hundreds of apartments, which were constructed in violation of rules.
Today one does not hear about the School Enrollment Scam. Thousands of students took admission in both government schools though they are actually studying in the private schools. This was done to take money meant for distribution of bicycles, scholarship, uniforms etc. All these happened in connivance with the officials and local politicians, especially of the ruling alliance.
While Uterus Scam drew the attention of the BBC world Service , which made a film, in Bihar the media did not do any follow up work.
These are only the tip of the iceberg, as irregularities have been committed in many appointments, especially of teachers––in schools as well as colleges.
Only in February last Janata Dal (United) suspended party MLA Mewalal Choudhary after he was booked in a case of gross irregularity in the appointments of 161 assistant professors and junior scientists at the Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, during his tenure as Vice-Chancellor in 2012.
What is ironical is that in February last the BJP strongly took up the matter as it was in opposition. What it forgot is that the appointment took place when it was an alliance partner of JD(U). Today it is again in the ruling coalition, thus its leaders are silent.
RJD being the main opposition party failed to raise effectively issues of scams as its own track record is no better. as Ghost of fodder scam is still following them.
