Had no proper knowledge of kite festival: Nitish Kumar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said he "had no proper knowledge" of the kite festival organised at Sabbalpur diara, where a boat tragedy claimed 24 lives, though his photographs appeared on advertisements put up by the Tourism Department.

He, however, said, action would be taken against those responsible for organising the event irrespective of their affiliations and positions.

"I had no proper knowledge of the event. Inquiry on how my photograph was put on the advertisement without approval of CM secretariat is part of probe," he said.

"Since Prakash Parva and Kalachakra were bigger events, where lakhs of people came from across the world, and were organised by the state government, everything concerning them were taken care of at my level. But this (kite festival) was held by one department (tourism) and not by the government," he said 

He said there had been "severe violations" of standard operating procedure (SOP) on safeguards for conducting events like the kite festival.

Amidst speculation of growing bonhomie with BJP, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday attacked the party while rejecting its Bihar unit's demand of postponing the human chain programme scheduled for January 21 in the wake of Patna boat tragedy.