One such case of allotment got horribly wrong with BIADA giving away government road to one of the investors leading to protest by the people, which led to the police firing and killing of four people in Bhajanpura village in Forbesganj sub-division of Araria district on June 3 last.

Now come to those who got the land. Urvashi Shahi, who got 87,000 square feet of Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority land in Vaishali district, is none else but the daughter of high-profile human resources development minister of Bihar, Prashant Kumar Shahi. His rise in politics surprised many even in the NDA. He was Advocate General of Bihar till last year November. After the victory of NDA in the Assembly election he was made minister though he was not the member of any House. He was soon elected as a member of the Bihar Legislative Council.

Similarly, Rahmat Fatima, daughter of Social Welfare Minister, Parween Amanullah, and water resources secretary of Bihar, Afzal Amanullah, too got 87.120 square feet of land in Bihiya, a few kilometres from Patna. Like Urvashi, Rahmat has no record of being an entrepreneur.

Amanullahs are undoubtedly the most ‘powerful’ Muslim couple of Bihar. Parween, who is the daughter of former diplomat and self-proclaimed Muslim leader, Syed Shahabuddin, before becoming a minister in the Nitish cabinet last November, was considered as a crusader against corruption, an RTI activist as well as champion of secularism. She filed several PIL and with Rekha Modi, cousin of deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, had been in forefront in the relentless campaign against corruption and irregularities in the Patna Medical College and Hospital.

However, she got ticket from Balia Assembly seat on Janata Dal (United) ticket. Incidentally, leaders of alliance partner, the BJP, also campaigned for her though both her father and she herself always claimed that they are dead against the Hindutva Brigade.

On the eve of Assembly election Afzal, on his part, got planted fantastic stories in newspaper that in fact it was he, and not the then chief minister, Lalu Yadav, who planned the arrest of Lal Krishna Advani in October 1990, when he was the deputy commissioner of Dhanbad. In fact Advani was arrested in Samastipur district.

Today the couple had to answer a lot on the allotment of such precious land to the ‘upcoming industrialist’ daughter.The MLA son of Janata Dal (United) MP from Jehanabad, Jagdish Sharma, is also a beneficiary of this generosity. Rahul Sharma got 15,500 square feet of land near Hajipur in Vaishali district for his company M/s Devlok Agro Beverage Private Company Ltd.

Father Jagdish Sharma has a unique history. In the last 34 years of his political career he has not lost any election. Not only that he had even ensured victory for his wife and son in the state Assembly election. He had been representing Ghosi Assembly seat in Jehanabad from 1977 to 2009, when he got elected as the MP. In the by-election of September 2009 his wife got elected from that very constituency (Ghosi) as an Independent candidate and in the election of 2010 it was his son Rahul, who got elected on the Janata Dal United ticket. In between 2009 and 2010 Jagdish Sharma was suspended from the Janata Dal (United) because he got elected his wife against the wish of the party high command. But that was just a temporary drama enacted by the party with a political purpose. Jagdish was then dead against the Bataidari Bill which was about to be introduced in the state Assembly.

Today Jagdish and his son are in the dock as to how they got the BIADA land at a throwaway price.
Former minister and BJP MLA Awadesh Narayan Singh did not lag far behind in this “land grabbing” venture with a difference. He got allotted 2,17,800 square feet of prime land in Bihta in the name of one, Mahesh Kumar. But the postal address of Mahesh is Trident Foundation, Verma Centre, 405406, Boring Road Crossing, Patna, which is incidentally the address of Awadesh Narayan Singh himself.

Bihta is fast emerging as Gurgaon or Faridabad of Patna. It already has an air base and land has been allotted to the Indian Institute of Technology there. One can only imagine the importance of land here.
But the biggest beneficiary is none else, but Ashok Agrawal, the BJP MLC and blue-eyed boy of deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi. He got two plots of 13 lakh square feet and 2,46,000 square feet in Forbesganj in Araria district. The plots have been allotted in the name of his son Saurabh.

Incidentally, four people belonging to the minority community were killed when they opposed the construction of wall for Glucose factory belonging to Saurabh, as BIADA had even allotted the government road to the industry. How this happened, nobody knows?

Reports suggest that this is only the tip of an iceberg and many other names may surface in the days to come. IG (Prison) Anand Kishore’s relative, is one of them.As not a single big industrialist from outside the state has come to invest in Bihar those close to the powers that be are perhaps now trying their own hand in this world of industry. But what is strange is that land meant for industries have been, in most of the cases, allotted for opening educational institutions.

Comment

comments...

Nitish: Arrogance Par Excellence
When public servants are left unbridled, their arrogance seem to develop stronger firewall rules which block out any mention or hint of corruption within their kingdom.
Nitish is an example of a 21st century despot who finds himself invincible despite broad day hooliganism by him and his hench men. Nitish Kumar has a large contribution in white-collar fraud , Im sure you can assume what is involved in such activities – large amounts of corruption,loot,bribery,land-grabbing , killing of innocent civilians and destruction of the moral fabric of Bihar.
Well the question is ! Do I have any documentary evidence that would back my claim? No I do not . People do not create official documents.It is the duty of the media and the court of law to do so. And everyone in the state knows how unbiased and greed-free are the agencies who form inquiry commissions.
I recently returned from Nigeria , a country famous for corruption in Africa.Trust me ,Nitish regime has dwarfed even the most corrupt nations on the face of the earth because he has annihilated every voice that asks for justice and accountability.Probably that's what he has learnt from his recent visit to China,"Silence your adversaries by gun,dhan or tan".

Arshad Mohsin
Kuwait

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Media should investigate this case mch deeper. The names of many more IAS,IPS and politicianswould come out. This is the real high level corruption story.

Prakash

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Its high time media should stop praising Mr. Nitish kumar and give honest opinion about him and his govrment. how he was unaware about such a big scam.

Tanweer Fatmi

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Land is allocated by CM by exercising his/her perfectly legal discretionary power for industry setup identity fo individual allotted land to setup industry notwithstanding.
This is total hogwash of so calleld corruption. This is as legal as they come. For instance in Forbesganj there already is ethanol production plant in place.
I say more power to Nitish Kumar if he can find people with enterpreneurial capability and alot them land for creating jobs in a grossly unindustriallizedd state like Bihar.Nitish deserves accolates not instead the fake corruption bogey is being raised.
Fact remaisn this is not only legal but even desirable. Of course unless someone can prove money change hands for alloting land. This seems to be gimmick by those whose mentality is of the mob that attacked Forbesganj ethanol plant.
Anil

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This is a very sad day for Bihar. After preaching probity in public life if this is the result then only God can save this state and the country. I guess Nitish is also going down in history like a also-ran, a far cry from his carefully crafted 'clean image'....

1) What is the status of Bitumen Scam, Flood Relief Scam of the erstwhile government? Who has stopped Nitish-Modi duo to bring the perpetrators to the justice?

2) How many officials have been booked and school opened in his much famed Confiscation of property bill.

Having said that I would also like to point out that in these days of falling morality Media is also not above suspicion. This has been proven by the News of the world story currently docking the Britain. This also contradicts Bihartimes theory of 'All Media are sold' claim. For the common man like me its smokescreen everywhere, don't know who to believe!

Nitish must come clean on all these otherwise he'll loose his 'Jiwan bhar ki Kamai'. There were many CMs in Bihar and there will be many more. But the image and imaginations of the people he got is precious much more than any material things in this world.

Alok

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I am a NRI doctor from Bihar working in UK. I was surprised to read about the land loot. I am under the impression that things are improving in Bihar under Nitish Kumar. However it seems that nothing much has changed and this government is no different from previous Laloo regime.. People who have money and power can still get away with whatever they want. They also seem to have the license to loot our state, just as Lalool’s brother in laws did in his regime.. This also poses a question mark on Nitish Kumar’s so called clean governance. I am unable to believe that such land loot is going and the chief minister is unaware of it.
I feel that if Nitish Kumar claims to lead a clean government, then he should cancel these illegal land allotments immediately and take action against people involved in such corruption.

Ahmed Ehsan

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It was disgusting to read such large scale of corruption by Ministers' sons/daughters, bureaucrats and their relatives including high rank Police official in the land corruption involving BIADA.

I have forwarded entire news item to CM Office for his urgent attention and action. In the meanwhile, I suggest a PIL should be filed in Patna High Court immediately, demanding CBI enquiry. This much I can at the moment.

Mohammad Yasar Imran

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Real face of Nitish government has started surfacing. Nitish govt has blatantly, violating all laws, rules and norms, has allotted plots after plots , worth crores of rupees, in different industrial areas of Bihar to sons and daughters as well as close friends of NDAleaders- (JD(U) and BJP legislatorsand ministers! In this game BJP legislators like Sushil Kumar Modi,Deputy chief minister, former minister and MLC, Awadhesh Narayan Singh, and P K Shahi, human resource development minister,Jagdish Sharma, MP, Praveen amanullah wife of Afzal amanullaha,, welfare minister have figured. While Amanullah's daughter has been allotted plot, daughter of Shahi, has been given such favour in Hazipur industrial areas, Jahdish Sharma's son also figured in the list. Sushil close friend had already been given such valuable plot in Forbesganj. So many such plots come in Bihata industrial areas-Bihaa is coming up fast to become a township because of Airbase, IIT and centres of excellences. Moreover, these valuable pieces of lands in industrial areas have been allotted without any advertisements and bids. Strangely Praveen happens to be daughter of so called Muslim leader Syed Shahabuddin. Intrestingly on the last assembly elections Afazal Amanullah had claimed that he was instrumental in arresting and stopping rath yatra of L K Advani while he was posted in Dhanbad as DC when the arrest of Advani and halting of rath were made by CM Laloo Prasad Yadav. Afzal and his sasur Syed saheb , once considered upright and of proven integrity having command in Muslim community, have developed strange fascination with BJP and JD (U), particularly Nitish kumar, who has given party nomination to Praveen and made her minister in his council of ministers. Praveen was fiery activists and doing right to information Act for more effective implementation-but she changed overnight and alongwith her father and husband became champion of NDA! Still I remember the role of syed Shahabuddin, who was chairman of Babari Masjid committee and he used to bring out a progressive magazine for highlighting the causes of minority community. I had extensively quoted that magazine of shahabuddin in my writes up on different occassions- Praveen was actively working for right to information and used to bring out rallies and agitation against Nitish government alongwith rekha Modi, sister of sushil kumar Modi. just before last assembly elections Now I failed to under stand what has gone wrong with shahabuddin saheb.

KKSingh, senior journalist, retired as chief reporter of Times of india.

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All ministers and bureauecrates are very close to Nitish. Can any enquiry go against them. The real entreprenures are sill in the line waiting their turn to come. Nitish ji sons and doughters of politiciansn't can make miracle in Bihar. Don't befool the innocent Biharis. You should order CBI probe in the process of the allotment of lands by BIADA.

Rakesh Prasad

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It was just shocking to hear this news on IBN7 yesterday night. Whatever is said is found true than it will be amongst the biggest betrayal by Nitish Kumar against the people of Bihar and Bihar. The main question is that whether this all happened in knowledge of Nitish Kumar or not. PK Sahi and Amanullah kind of people are most dangerous. They are rich, they are in power, and they are looting Bihar and its all efforts to rise for good. Despite of so much of sorry state of Bihar for past several yers, these gaddars did not feel an inch of responsibility towards Bihar but started looting it like Lalu. We used to abuse Lalu and his family members as they were eating out all government property like moth and even the Patna Central Jail was about to be captured as a personal property by Lalu and Sadhu Yadav. But today you go to Dak Bunglow road, Sahi owns lines of properties there. no problem. But where is the industry? What is the proof or agreement where inductrial commitment has been done by doughters of Sahi and Amanullah and others kit and kins?

Myth about government and democracy is shattering everyday in this country. Getting into power and being part of governance has become synonymous to corruption, licence to loot and do all possible maladies. Who says India got independent? It went into much wrong hands. Nitish Kumar one side don's clean image to fool us and another side the state is sinking. A proper judiciary inquiry should be conducted and all these guys who are involved should be nailed. Even if Nitish Kumar is not involved in this, was he sleeping with sleeping pills that such issue has erupted? One side he says zero tolerance against corruption, but all seems to be matter of talk only( Amazingly only one house has been confiscated and converted to school in Bihar as if Ram Rajya has arrived there!). His own right hands are doing worst corruption and sinking the efforts to raise Bihar.

Ravi Shankar