Patna, Sep 2 (IANS) A day after the conclusion of the Rahul Gandhi-led INDIA bloc’s Voter Rights Yatra in Patna, RJD leader and Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his government.
In a series of posts on social media, Tejashwi Yadav alleged massive corruption in departments under the state government, accusing senior engineers of amassing hundreds of crores of rupees through illicit means.
Tejashwi Yadav pointed out institutional corruption in the NDA government. He said, “EOU allegedly recovered with Rs 13 crore in cash from the house of one engineer, despite attempts by family members to burn nearly Rs 10 crore in notes during the raid.”
He claimed the official’s total assets were worth Rs 500 crore.
Another engineer was allegedly found to possess property worth Rs 100 crore. A third engineer reportedly owned assets worth Rs 300 crore.
“These are just three small examples of institutional corruption fostered by the Nitish Kumar government,” Tejashwi wrote.
He also alleged that ministers in Nitish’s cabinet are enriched by tenders and regularly interact with “certified” corrupt officials and dreaded criminals.
The RJD leader accused the Chief Minister of shielding corrupt officers, saying: “Does the CM go to the house of a minister who got rich by global tendering every morning and evening to settle accounts?”
The RJD leader further alleged that 14 crore people of Bihar are witnesses to the widespread bribery and corruption prevalent at police stations and block offices.
A day earlier, Tejashwi had labelled Nitish Kumar the ‘Bhishma Pitamah’ of moral corruption, claiming that seizures of Rs 100 crore from engineers’ houses were only the tip of the iceberg.
He also mocked the JD(U)-BJP government as a “copycat government”, accusing it of imitating RJD’s promises.
“When we said we would increase pensions, the government announced the same. When we said we would give free electricity, they also copied it. This government can copy us, but it cannot bring vision,” Yadav said.
The fresh allegations come barely 24 hours after a major opposition rally in Patna, where Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi Yadav, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Shiv Sena(UBT)’s Sanjay Raut, NCP-Pawar’s Supriya Sule, and other INDIA bloc leaders jointly attacked the NDA government, accusing it of subverting democracy.
With the election season drawing near, corruption has once again emerged as one of the central themes in Bihar’s political discourse, with both sides sharpening their attacks.
–IANS
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