News Analysis India

Tag: Bihar assembly

  • Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Yadav lock horns in Bihar Assembly over law and order situation in state

    Express News Service
    PATNA: Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav went hard on the Bihar government led by Nitish Kumar on the issue of law and order in the state during the Assembly session on Tuesday.

    Yadav, citing data, attacked Nitish Kumar-led NDA government during the motion of thanks to the Governor.

    Tejashwi Yadav cited that only 97,850 cases of crimes were registered during the Lalu Prasad government when he handed over the power to Nitish Kumar in 2005 from 1990.

    “But the number of crimes have increased to 1,96,911 in 2018 during the 13 years of NDA government, registering a big jump of 102 per cent of crimes,” he said, citing the NCR data of crimes.

    Countering the term “jungle Raj”, which is still being used by the NDA to describe the 15 years of both Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi’s rule, Tejashwi Yadav asked whose regime suited to be branded as “Jungle Raj”– the Nitish Kumar or Lalu Yadav or Rabri Devi years?

    Tejashwi Yadav said that total crime in 1990 (when his father Lalu Yadav was the Chief Minister) in Bihar was 1,24,414, which dwindled to 97,850 only in 2005-the year RJD lost the power?

    “But in 2018,the total number of crimes rose to 1,96,911 registering a rise of 102 per cent under the Nitish Kumar rule. So, whose regime deserves to be dubbed as the Jungle Raj,” he said.

    Replying to the law and order issues later in the House, chief minister Nitish Kumar countered Tejashwi’s allegations citing that Bihar has improved in the Crime Indiex and had gone down from 23 position to 25 in the country.

    The chief minister claimed that a rule of law has been established in the state from those days when no one dared to venture out in the evening for fear of becoming the ‘victims of lawlessness.’

    According to an official figure of Bihar police, a total number of 2,69,096 cognizable crimes, including 3,138 murders, 1,450 rapes and 43 kidnapping cases were registered in Bihar in 2019 followed by a total number of  2,57,506 cognizable crimes, including 3,149 murders and 1,438 rapes in 2020.

  • Bihar Assembly budget session kick-starts with ‘applauses’ from Governor for Nitish Kumar govt

    Express News Service
    PATNA: Applauding the state government in its fight against COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Phagu Chauhan marked the beginning of the Budget Session by addressing a joint sitting of the Bihar Legislature on Friday.

    On the first day of the Budget Session, Phagu Chauhan outlined the achievements of the state and spoke about how the Bihar government was trying to make the state ‘self-reliant’ at all fronts. 

    The governor said that the state government has been constantly trying to make women self-reliant and has also conducted skill-mapping of labourers, who returned back to the state during COVID-19 lockdown.

    Reiterating the government’s claim, the Governor said that free COVID-19 vaccines will be provided to all people in Bihar.

    Expressing his satisfactions on the government’e performance, he further said that the Nitish Kumar-led government is providing all possible assistance to youth and farmers of the state.

    He also appreciated that the organised crimes in the state were contained and modernisation of police forces has been taken up on the priority.

    At the end of Governor Phagu Chauhan and speaker Vijay K Sinha’s address, the state finance minister and deputy CM Tar Kishor Prasad presented the economic survey of Bihar for 2020-21.

    Prasad claimed that the state has started moving on the path of “good governance coupled with all inclusive developments.”

    Meanwhile, leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav termed the address by governor as a “lie” and slammed chief minister Nitish Kumar for being silent on the deaths of farmers, who agitated against the three new farm bills.

    “Both the JD-U and the BJP are anti- farmer parties and deviating the people from real issues,” Yadav alleged.

    Some MLAs from the Opposition arrived outside the House either riding a bicycle or carrying earthen oven with woods pieces as a mark of protest against the rise in price of fuel.

    Pratima Kumari and Shakil Ahamed of Congress Party arrived with an earthen oven and a bundle of firewood as a symbolic protest.

    Congress MLA from Rajapakar Pratima Kumari said that the high fuel prices had made “running households extremely difficult.”

    “Since LPG prices are sky-rocketing, we have come here with earthen oven that is used by poor in the rural areas to cook food.”

    The assembly session, which started on February 19, will last till March 24. There will be a total of 22 working days in this session. 

  • LJP to suffer big jolt in Bihar soon as party leaders likely to join ruling JD-U on Thursday

    Express News Service
    PATNA: If speculations were to be believed, the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will suffer a major jolt in Bihar as nearly five dozen leaders are expected to join the ruling JD-U, along with their supporters, on February 18.

    The rebellion against Chirag Paswan started getting louder in the LJP after the party’s poor performance in the Bihar Assembly elections 2020.

    Many district heads of Chirag Paswan’s party are among those who are speculated to revolt and leave the LJP.

    If former spokesperson and leader of the LJP, Keshav Singh, is to be believed, over 60 leaders will join the JDU on February 18 to strengthen Nitish Kumar’s camp. Singh had turned rebellious after he was expelled from LJP.

    Keshav Singh told media persons that a decision to join JD-U by dozens of leaders and their supporters was taken recently at a meeting of rebel LJP leaders.

    He further added that the LJP rebels will attend a meeting of JD-U on February 18 and join the JD-U to strengthen Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s hand. He said that he would be among others taking the membership of JD-U.

    A veteran political analyst of Bihar, Arun Kumar Pandey, said that rebel LJP leaders joining JD-U, led by Keshav Singh, can create political hype in the short run but won’t have a long term damaging impact on LJP.

    “It is almost sure that those joining JD-U will not get any berths. But JD-U, by welcoming the LJP rebels in their party, can put a demoralising pressure on Chirag Paswan for taking a stand against LJP’s in Bihar polls,” Pandey said.

    LJP leader Awadhesh Singh said that Keshav Singh and others can not make any impact on LJP as he along with many others were expelled.

  • Bihar Assembly building completes 100 years; Nitish Kumar tells ruling members they are ‘sevaks’ and not ‘maalik’

    By PTI
    PATNA: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday highlighted the glorious past of the Bihar Legislative Assembly on completion of 100 years of its building and told those sitting in the government not to confuse themselves as the “masters” as in the democracy people are the “maalik” and we are their “sevaks” (servants).

    Inaugurating the year-long centenary celebrations of the sprawling assembly building, Kumar stressed on healthy debate and discussions in the house to serve the masses together in a more better manner.

    Kumar said he was in favour of holding longer session of the state legislature to give ample time to every member to ask questions and raise issues of their areas.

    It was on this day when the first session of the Bihar and Odisha provincial legislative council was formally inaugurated by Lord Satyendra Prassana Sinha,Governor of the erstwhile province.

    Though the building was ready by the end of 1920, the inaugural session was held on February 7, 1921.

    Besides Kumar, Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, Legislative Council Acting Chairman Awadhesh Narayan Singh, Deputy Chief Ministers- Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi- former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, Parliamentary Affairs minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary and a host of ministers, legislators and other dignitaries attended the inaugural function.

    “We should not confuse ourselves as masters as in democracy janata (people) are the maalik while legislators are their representatives and people sitting in the government are their ‘sevaks’ (servants),” Kumar said in his speech.

    “We normally have longer Budget session which runs for a month. But, other sessions (monsoon and winter) run for 7,8 or 10 days.

    “If you wish, we will extend it further so that members, who are also considered part of the government, get a fair amount of time to express their views and opinion on various matters besides raising issues of their areas as it is their duty to do so,” Kumar said.

    Kumar said this while responding to several previous speakers who expressed their grievance on the session being short one which denied them opportunity to put their views or raise issues.

    He, however, said that so far as duration of the session is concerned, it has to be collectively decided by the Assembly Speaker and the Council Chairman.

    The CM assured the members that the government would certainly accept their suggestions/views if they were “genuine” and “correct”.

    Stating that he was quite hopeful of getting over with the COVID pandemic in the next few months, Kumar said that the number of coronavirus cases has been quite low in Bihar and the government has done a plenty of work including carrying out inoculation drive.

    The manner in which coronavirus spread and continued for quite longer period of time affecting huge number of people, it seems that it did not come in a “natural way” rather it appears to be some kind of “mischief” or may have come from different parts of the world especially in China where different types of “artificial work” take place, the CM said.

    “There are chances that such things could recur again in future. In these circumstances, we need to remain alert and cautious,” Kumar said.

    Kumar thanked Assembly Speaker for organising centenary year function and asked him to organise such programmes in future too on different topics/subjects and their experts as participants besides the members of the legislature.

    Speaking on the occasion, the Speaker said the faith of democracy lies in legislature.

    “We should create an atmosphere that would deepen people’s faith in state legislature….Opposition’s cooperation is needed for smooth functioning of the assembly,” the Speaker said.

    Other leaders who spoke on the occasion included RJD’s Awadh Bihari Choudhary, Congress’ Vijay Shankar Dubey and Ajit Sharma, CPI(ML)’s Mahboob Alam, AIMIM’s Akhtarul Iman, CPI’s Ram Ratan Singh and CPI(M)’s Ajay Kumar.

    The function saw an unpleasant moment when Alam raised objection to display of BJP flags at the roundabout near the entrance of the legislative premises inviting jeer from the saffron party legislators.

  • We will boycott Assembly session if it is truncated: Bihar opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav

    Express News Service
    PATNA: Bihar’s leader of Opposition from RJD Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday threatened to lay siege around CM Nitish Kumar and deputy CMs Tar Kishor Prasad and Renu Devi’s residences if the budget session of the state assembly is truncated and does not work to its full lenght.

    Talking to the media on Sunday, Tejashwi Yadav said that the Mahagatvandhan (Grand Alliance) will form a human chain across Bihar on January 30 in protest of the newly introduced farm bills and in solidarity with the farmers protesting against it. The leaders and supporters of RJD, Congress and other allies of Mahagatvandhan will form the human chain showing a collective solidarity to the farmers,

    Tejashwi Yadav said that the speaker has requested that the upcoming budget session of the assembly be reduced due to possible vaccination drive for COVID-19 in March. “I have requested the speaker to hold a meeting with all the parties. Why is the government running away from questions”, he said, adding that how will the peoples’ representatives ask questions if the session does not work to its full length.

    “Now they are trying to tell us that just 243 members of the House cannot assemble because of the pandemic. They are talking about vaccination. Can they give a tentative date of its commencement? Do they have even a faint idea as to how many vials of the shot will be made available to Bihar?” Yadav asked mockingly.

    Underscoring that legislative business had suffered in the state over the past one year because of the pandemic, Yadav said if the upcoming session was shortened “we will boycott it and gherao the residences of the Chief Minister and the deputy CMs”.

    Accusing CM Nitish Kumar of ruining the state, he said that Nitish Kumar has virtually become a bargainer instead of  a leader remaining a leader. “You can see how he treated George Fernandes, Digvijay Singh and RJD in the past. He had managed to come into power through backdoor and now is trying to remain in power”, Tejashwi alleged.

    He said that 50 farmers, who were opposed to the agricultural bills, have lost their lives as martyrs. “But neither the central government nor the Nitish government has anything to help farmers.  Farmers of Bihar are forced to sell paddy at cheap prices.  Paddy is not being procured at MSP.  The government is making the farmers poor”, he said.

    (With PTI inputs)