Patna, (Bihar Times):Not to speak of the opposition now the ruling party top brass is talking of corruption in Bihar. Janata Dal (United) General Secretary Shambhu Sharan Srivastava on Thursday said that widespread corruptionin in the bureaucracy was holding back investment in the state.

Addressing a Press conference here in Patna he said that the widespread corruption in the bureaucracy is holding back investments and slowing down industrialisation resulting in large-scale migration of population from the Bihar to other states.

He said that over the past 20 years, one-fourth of state’s population has migrated elsewhere in search of jobs. The present and past governments are to be blamed for this rise in corruption.

Mincing no words Srivastava, who is also an MLC said, that under the present dispensation, though MoUs had been signed for investments worth Rs 92,000 crore, proposals to the tune of only Rs 600 crore had been materalised.

The JD(U) leader also alleged that despite being primarily an agricultural state, farmers in Bihar were not getting lucrative returns on their produce due to lack of agro business centres.

Srivastava’s diatribe against his own government machinery is likely to create problem as it came too close to the parliamentary election. He said the Centre had allocated Rs 167 crore for setting up about 7,000 agro business centres during the current fiscal but due to agriculture department’s inability to submit audit and project reports on time, the government had received only Rs 11 crore so far.

His statement came only a day after the chief minister assured action against those involved in corruption.

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