Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took a dig at the Centre on Saturday for the poor maintenance of national highways in the State.
“Shall we put up a board saying such and such roads are national highways whose upkeep is the responsibility of the Union government,” he asked at a function of the Road Construction Department.
“The Centre announces roads as part of national highways, but forgets that it has to build the roads too, and after building them, it forgets that it is its responsibility to keep them motorable,” Mr. Kumar said.
Bihar has 4,371 km of national highways, most of them in a bad condition. “If the Union government says it does not have the money for repairs, we would do them and the Centre can pay the money to the State later,” he said. “When will achhe din come for national highways,” he wondered. “The State government has formulated a policy under which the contractor has to maintain the roads for five years after building them,” he said.
Jungle raj quip: Nitish reminds BJP of Gujarat 2002
Responding to BJP president Amit Shah’s statement that Jungle Raj-II had returned to Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Saturday that the BJP had no moral right to comment on law and order in other States as it was unable to explain the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat .
“What were the 2002 communal rights? They should answer it first. What moral right do they have to pass comments on the law and order situation in others States,” Mr. Nitish Kumar told journalists here.
“This is Jungle Raj-II, therefore the people of Bihar are very angry and upset. Now, they want a new government led by the BJP,” Mr. Shah had said at the BJP national executive meeting in Bangalore on Friday.
Mr. Nitish Kumar called the BJP ‘Bhartiya Jumla Party’ for making “tall claims and hiding its failures.” “Even before it completes one year in office, the BJP has started losing steam and inviting the people’s ire.”
The BJP is scheduled to hold a mega rally of party workers at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on April 14 which will be addressed by Mr Shah and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh among others. Condemning Mr. Shah’s remark, Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad said the BJP was spreading anarchy in the country, and it was not fair to call the people of Bihar “junglee.”
