Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s cavalcade was pelted with bricks and stones on Friday when he was on his way to Nandan village in Buxar district as part of his ‘Vikas Samiksha Yatra’. Mr. Kumar was not harmed but some security personnel sustained injuries.
Kicking off the fourth leg of his month-long tour of the State’s 38 districts, Mr. Kumar reached Buxar and was on his way to Nandan. When his convoy did not stop at a Dalit hamlet, some villagers pelted bricks and stones at it. The windows of some vehicles were damaged and two security personnel sustained injuries. The villagers also raised anti-government slogans. Policemen chased the protesters and resorted to a lathi charge, injuring some of them.
“We wanted the CM to see that none of his development work under the Saat Nischay (seven resolutions) programme had reached that part of the village — all development work has been done just to one side of the village, but policemen started chasing us away,” a villager told mediapersons.
Later, Mr. Kumar said at a public meeting, “People should not get perturbed over such minor happenings. Some people get disturbed over my commitment to progress of the State. My purpose is not to run the government from the State capital but to assess ground realities and the progress of development schemes.”
Earlier in the yatra, when some protesters waved black flags at Sulindabad village in Saharsa, Mr. Kumar had said wryly, “What is wrong with black colour? It is a fine shade. Dissent lends beauty to democracy.”
