Nitish disappointed over cancellation of power ministers' meet at Rajgir

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday expressed displeasure over the cancellation of a power ministers' conference, scheduled in Rajgir last week, saying the decision to call off the event at the eleventh hour was "impractical" and had led to "embarrassment". The chief minister said, many of the delegates had already arrived by then in Rajgir and Patna and some of the delegates coming from Delhi were at the airport when they got the news of the conference being called off.

"I think making the announcement of cancellation at the last moment was impractical. It caused embarrassment," Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of his weekly "Janta Durbar" programme here.

The chief minister was responding to queries about the two-day conference, which was to be held on November 10-11 but was cancelled on November 9 due to "unavoidable circumstances".

"As far as we were concerned, the Bihar government was just a facilitator for what was essentially a biennial event held by the Government of India. I too had just received an invitation to attend the inaugural function", he added.

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday asserted that entire Kashmir, including the areas occupied by Pakistan, was an integral part of India.

"We have always held that Kashmir is an integral part of India. This has been our unequivocal stand on the issue. We hold that the whole of Kashmir, including the areas occupied by Pakistan, is an integral part of the country," he told reporters. Kumar was responding to a query on a statement of National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah that Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) belonged to Pakistan.