Central funds are not Congress property: Jaitley to PM

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his remark that central funds had not been properly utilised by the Bihar government, saying "central funds are not Congress property".

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his remark that central funds had not been properly utilised by the Bihar government, saying "central funds are not Congress property".

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Jaitley, who is Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, also said "the prime minister should not have made that remark on Bihar as a Congressman but as an economist".

"The remark that was made yesterday - the money that the central government collects is the tax-payer's money. People from Bihar also pay tax. Central funds are not the property of the Congress party," Jaitley said.

On Saturday, the prime minister had told an election rally in Narpatganj assembly constituency in Bihar's Araria district that funds provided by the central government were not utilised properly.

"The Bihar government has failed to spend funds properly which resulted in lack of progress and development," he said.

The prime minister also said that Bihar's Janata Dal-United-Bharatiya Janata Party government was "misguiding" people by naming centrally-funded schemes as its own.