Bihar min sends brother to govt function, Nitish disapproves
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday expressed displeasure over reports of one of his cabinet colleagues deputing a family member as his "representative" to a government function which the minister himself could not attend.
Kumar told the assembly that he read in newspapers about the incident that took place in Hajipur, the district headquarters of Vaishali, and "if it is true, it should not have happened".
The chief minister was intervening in reply to the issue being flagged by RJD MLA Bhai Virendra who questioned the "propriety" of MukeshSahni, a newly inducted minister, sending his brother as a representative to the function held on Wednesday by a government vehicle.
The function was held to disburse benefits under a scheme introduced by the government under which fishermen belonging to extremely backward classes or SC/ST groups will be getting heavy subsidies for purchase of motor vehicles.
Sahni, founder of the fledgling VikassheelInsaan Party (VIP), holds the fisheries portfolio.
As per the scheme run by his department, the government will bear 90 per cent of the expenses incurred towards purchase of cars, three-wheelers or two-wheelers.
At Wednesdays function, more than 20 beneficiaries of the scheme were handed over keys of the vehicles purchased by them and the release issued by the district administration mentioned the presence of "Santosh Sahni, the representative of honourable minister for fisheries and animal husbandry Mukesh
Sahni".
Media reports said that Sahni was a brother of the minister and video footage beamed by some local channels showed the "representative" fumbling when asked to name the scheme under which he was giving away
the doles.