Council chairman chides ministers for vague replies

Working chairman of Bihar Legislative Council Awadhesh Narayan Singh on Friday pulled up the ministers for adopting a casual approach and giving vague replies to questions raised in the Upper House and asked them give authentic and proper replies to the same queries on later dates during the current session.

Working chairman of Bihar Legislative Council Awadhesh Narayan Singh on Friday pulled up the ministers for adopting a casual approach and giving vague replies to questions raised in the Upper House and asked them give authentic and proper replies to the same queries on later dates during the current session.

Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi on her way to the Legislative Council on Friday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

“Take action against the officials who don’t give satisfactory replies. The government must prove its utility. Casual replies often put question mark on credibility of the ministers as well as the members who raise the questions of public interest,” said the chairman, while asking Alok Ranjan Jha, who was responding on behalf of the finance minister, to come out with focused reply at a later date.

The chairman lost his cool when Jha offered a vague reply to a query of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) member Sunil Kumar, who sought to know why a depositor was not paid for his saved amount by the Sahara India even after maturity. The chairman suspended the question and asked the minister to come out with detailed reply.

The chairman also expressed his discontent with reply of Jha, as the minister in-charge of finance, in response to a question from JD(U) member Neeraj Kumar, who sought to know whether the state government had any plan of pressuring the commercial banks to offer loans to entrepreneurs in industries sector. The minister had replied that the state government had no role in it, as commercial banks do their business as per the RBI regulations.

The JD(U) member had alleged that commercial banks were reluctant to offer loans for industrial investment in the state.

Likewise, the chairman also directed minor irrigation minister Santosh Kumar to get a focused reply from the officials to a query of RJD member Sunil Kumar, who wondered why only 10% of the tube well out of the total 5,608 could become operational in the past six years, even though the state government had sanctioned ₹83.28 crore for their repair. The question was put off for Tuesday.

No place for Sahni in RJD: Rabri

Former chief minister and senior RJD leader Rabri Devi on Friday said there was no place for Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahni in her party. “Mukesh Sahni should think for himself. He had left the RJD bandwagon,” she told reporters when she was asked if Sahni could be rehabilitated in the RJD-led alliance.

Recently, Sahni had said he was repenting for not following the words of the RJD chief. “I would not have undergone this traumatic phase had I followed ideas of Lalu Prasad,” he had said after all his three MLAs deserted the party and joined the BJP on Wednesday.