Bihar minister resigns within 12 hours of taking oath

      Patna: Jitan Ram Manjhi resigned as minister from the newly formed Bihar Cabinet within 12-hours of taking oath, as he was allegedly involved in a scam involving the grant of irregular recognition to teachers' training institutes in 1990s, when he was the Minister of State for Education in the Rabri Devi Government. Manjhi, who had joined JD-U after leaving RJD earlier this year, today said that he was not forced to quit and had resigned voluntarily, "as I want the NDA government to have a clean image".He, however, alleged that there is a conspiracy against him within the JD(U).

     Manjhi said that while the police is investigating the charges against him, no chargesheet had been filed so far. "People thought that I have been chargesheeted and that I am a tainted minister. That might have worried Nitish Kumar. When I got to know about it, I personally offered to resign so that he can run the government without any worries," Manjhi said. "I come from a Dalit family and Nitish Kumar had thought that my being a minister will help Dalits in the state but afterwards the media or others from the party asked why a tainted minister was in the cabinet ahead of other leaders," he said. Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar and Bhartiya Janata Party leader Sushil Kumar Modi along with the 25 ministers were administered oath of office and secrecy on Thursday afternoon in the presence of former Prime Minster Atal Bihari Vajpayee, BJP president LK Advani, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Babulal Gaur, BJP leaders Uma Bharti, M Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitely and Navjot Singh Siddhu, Digvijay Singh and Rajnath Singh.

     Manjhi was one among the politicians, senior bureaucrats and senior officials of the National Council for Teachers' Education, a government body formed in 1995 to grant recognition to teachers' training institutes, named in an FIR registered by the state vigilance department in 1999. Besides Manjhi, the FIR also involved former Union Minister Jaiprakash Narain Yadav, who was the cabinet minister for education at that time. Yadav had resigned from the ministry after a special vigilance court issued a warrant of arrest against him in 2000 and surrendered before the court thereafter. Yadav also had to resign recently from the Union government for his alleged involvement in the "illegal" release of his brother and RJD candidate for Jamui, Vijay Prakash from police custody. The accused were alleged to have conspired with the heads of various teachers' training institutes, existing only on paper, in selling fake degrees to students from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh for prices ranging between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 2.25 lakh. Investigations carried out by the vigilance sleuths revealed that several teachers' training colleges were either fake or did not meet the requisite infrastructure requirements as prescribed by either the All India Council of Teachers' Education or the University Grants Commission but were given recognition by the NCTE on the basis of forged spot inspection reports. Over 40,000 fake degrees were issued by these institutions, according to the FIR, which also said Gaya-based Magadh University and Darbhanga-based LN Mithila university had given large scale recognition to such institutions.

Rabri Devi ordered to move out of 'official' bungalow

     Barely hours after the NDA government was sworn in on Thursday afternoon, the Bihar administration issued notices to former state chief minister Rabri Devi and several former ministerial colleagues to vacate their official bungalows at the earliest. "Since neither of them is a chief minister any more, they cannot stay in the government accommodation for long," said Sushil Kumar Modi, Deputy Chief Minister. The notices were issued by the State Department of Building Construction, which said that the allotment of the bungalows stood cancelled with immediate effect. The occupants were directed to vacate their respective premises and inform the department accordingly, official sources said. The bungalow located at 1 Anne Marg in Patna served as the official residence of both Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi during their respective chief ministerships from 1990 to 2005. The others who were served notices included two newly inducted Ministers in the Nitish Kumar cabinet - Vijendra Prasad Yadav and Ram Nath Thakur. They were occupying ministerial bungalows, despite being members of the Bihar state legislature. Bhola Yadav, who served as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Rabri Devi, described the eviction notice as 'irrational', as 1 Anne Marg was never notified as the official residence of the Chief Minister. "Since Rabri Devi has stayed there for long, it got the status of the Chief Minister bungalow but it was never marked officially," he added. According to the sources, former Samajwadi Party (SP) State President Dadan Singh, who left SP to float his own party, was also served the notice. The move surprised RJD President and Railway Minister Lalu, who took objection to the notice cancelling the allotment of 1 Anne Marg. He said, "Before giving any time in advance, a cancellation of allotment notice has been sent." "According to laws, Ex-CMs are entitled to government accommodation for five years after the end of the tenure," he added. "Nitish Kumar has assumed the post of the Chief Minister and 1 Anne Marg, which is notified as official residence of the CM should be vacated for him," said Sushil Kumar Modi, Deputy Chief Minister.

Buta rule led to RJD's debacle in Bihar: Lalu critics

     New Delhi: A senior RJD leader and Union cabinet minister, who is known for being a vocal critic of his party supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, today said that the two main reasons for his party's debacle in the recent Bihar Assembly polls were dissolution of the Assembly, and letting Buta Singh to continue as the State Governor. He said it became clear when the Supreme Court passed an order saying that the dissolution of the Assembly was improper. Citing another reason for the defeat, he said that ahead of the polls, Lalu spent (read wasted) much of his time attending Railway Ministry functions, and did not engage in active election campaigning. "I think Lalu should have allocated more time towards active electioneering, rather than attending Railway Ministry functions organised to mark the opening of new platforms and railway stations and laying foundation stones," said the RJD minister while informally speaking to reporters inside the Parliament House.

     According to him, a yet another reason for the loss in the elections was that Lalu couldn't deliver his promise of good governance up to the common man. "Only in front of the media he (Lalu) asked for one more chance in Bihar by promising good governance. But, actually, he was unsuccessful in reaching out to the people with this message. Had he succeeded, the people could have believed him and his charisma could have worked once more," he said just before leaving for Patna to attend a party meeting to analyse the defeat. Lalu had left for Patna for the purpose last evening. Other senior leaders who would be attending the meeting include Ram Kripal Yadav and Raghunath Jha. The Union cabinet minister who was speaking to media persons has been keeping a distance from Lalu after being ignored during ticket distribution in the first round of elections held in February. After not able to get a large chunk of seats for his supporters, he spent much of his time in New Delhi and seldom attended any party meeting. According to him, "Lalu "s surrounded by a coterie of bad advisers".