22/07/2010
Aggressive opposition to continue protest against Nitish Kumar
Patna, July 22 (IANS) A day after unseemly scenes of a slipper being flung at the speaker and flower pots being broken in the assembly, Bihar's opposition legislators Thursday said they would continue their protest against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his alleged involvement in a Rs.11,412 crore scam.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) combine has decided that their suspended legislators would march to the Raj Bhavan Thursday to meet Governor Devanand Konwar and submit a memorandum to him.
Sixty-seven legislators were suspended for unruly behaviour in the Bihar assembly Wednesday.
"Our legislators will meet the governor to apprise him about the situation," RJD's chief whip Ram Chandra Purve told IANS here.
RJD's deputy leader in the house Shakil Ahmad Khan said RJD-LJP leaders would take their agitation to the streets after protesting in the house.
"We will not sit silent over the biggest-ever scam in Bihar revealed by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report that resulted the ordering of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe by the Patna High Court," Khan, one of those who has been suspended, said.
LJP state president Pasupati Kumar Paras said Nitish Kumar's image had been sullied and his claims of good governance exposed.
"Nitish Kumar's image received a major setback. He is now a chief minister with corruption charges," he said.
The Left parties, including the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), have also decided to stage a daylong sit-in July 23.
"The Left parties have decided to launch an agitation against the Nitish Kumar government's move to suppress the irregularities of Rs.11,412 crore in the state," CPI-M leader Sarvodya Sharma said.
The state Congress has urged all opposition legislators to resign en-masse to press for early dissolution of the assembly.
The Bihar assembly witnessed violent clashes between ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and opposition members in the last two days.
Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi are among the 47 people named in the complaint alleging irregularities of Rs.11,412 crore during 2002-08 in Bihar.
Petitioner Arvind Kumar pointed at financial irregularities in the use of development funds.
The court has fixed July 26 as the next hearing date in the case.
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