Bihar: Oppn members walk out over minister’s massacre reference

Bihar plans to open special schools for disabled children in all divisions, while the Opposition staged a walkout over governance criticisms in the assembly.

Social welfare minister Madan Sahni on Wednesday said in Vidhan Sabha that the government would open special schools for the hearing, speech and visually impaired children in all the divisions and the plan for it was almost ready.

Opposition members protest outside Bihar Legislative Council in Patna, Wednesday (SANTOSH KUMAR/HT)

However, the Opposition stood up and staged walkout as soon as Sahni said the RJD, Congress regime had witnessed 118 massacres and one could well imagine the kind of governance those days when only a few enjoyed the fruits. RJD’s Alok Mehta, however, said the situation was even worse today due to an atmosphere of fear and intimidation and led the Opposition out of the House.

The minister was giving the government reply on the social welfare department’s demand in the supplementary budget, which was passed by voice vote.

“All the divisions will have schools for special children with intake of 500 each. At present, only three divisions have such schools for education up to Class 8, but this year all the divisions will have such schools, which will be upgraded to Plus Two level,” the minister added.

in another significant decision, the minister said that the benefits of schemes meant for specially abled would now be extended to those having 40% disability, unlike earlier when it was 60%, due to change in the eligibility criteria.

“This will help more specially abled people. They will also get incentives in education and entrepreneurship, besides financial assistance up to ₹1 lakh to prepare for civil services,” he added.

The minister said that Bihar had distributed maximum number of motorised tri-cycles to specially-abled persons in the country and that showed the government’s intent and concern.

“If Nitish government continues to get the blessings of the people even after 20 years, it is because they have trust in him and they see their reflection in the government that cares for them,” he added, highlighting the various initiatives.

Earlier, RJD legislator Kumar Sarvjeet questioned the tendency of bringing supplementary budgets when the government was not able to spend even the regular budget and described it as a sign of fiscal mismanagement and indiscipline. He was backed by CPI-ML’s Sandip Sourav and AIMIM’s Akhtarul Imam.

“The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, tabled in Bihar Assembly in July 2025, also flagged non-submission of Utilisation Certificates (UCs) for over ₹70,000 crore as of March 31, 2024,” he said , demanding discussion on it.

However, finance minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said that the MLA, who has also been a minister, should know the rules that any CAG report is first sent to the Public Accounts committee (PAC) and there could be no discussion on it till the report is submitted.

With the treasury benches often attacking the Opposition with comparisons prior to 2005, Sarvajeet said increase in the budget size was a natural process and all states had witnessed it, equating it with the change in price of gold since 2005.