Patna,(BiharTimes): Be it the outgoing chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, his the then cabinet colleague, Benay Bihari, or the Patna high court, the massive expenditure on the construction of Bihar Museum in Bailey Road is being questioned.

Manjhi did not mince his words to allege large scale irregularities in its construction. He had charged that initially, the budgetary allocation for this museum was Rs 280 crore, but it was later raised to Rs 500 crore without following the prescribed norms.

Both Manjhi and Benay Bihari, who remained loyal to the former till last, raised the question of its utility as a separate Patna Museum already existed, and that too not too far from the new one.Bihari said that some pages from the file related to expenditure and budget of Bihar museum were ‘missing’. He said he came to know that a former bureaucrat had tampered with a few pages of the file pertaining to expenditure of Rs 280 crore for the construction of the Museum.

The high court on February 5 last, while hearing a PIL, observed that the state government had not cared to respond to the allegations made in the petition during the last three years.If the earlier announced programme is not changed the Bihar Museum is likely to be inaugurated in July. Work is on full progress and the present government would like it to throw open before the Assembly election.

But the big question is: whether the Nitish government is going to order any probe into the allegations made by his predecessor and the question raised by the Patna high court.After all the former chief minister had raised several serious allegations of corruption against eight and a half years old Nitish regime.