Corruption at highest level in Bihar, alleges Prashant Bhushan

Bhushan stressed the need for "transparency and fairness" suggested that a commission be set up to ensure the affected people got adequate compensation.

Patna: Senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Saturday charged the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar with indulging in "corruption at the highest level" by leasing out 1,000 acres of land to a leading conglomerate at a throwaway price.

Addressing a press conference here, Bhushan referred to an upcoming power project at Bhagalpur, for which a 30-year lease has been secured by the business group, reportedly at a rate of just one rupee per annum.

Bhushan alleged that the NDA government has agreed to a deal, which would "result in an estimated annual loss of Rs 5,000 crore" to the state exchequer and suspected "corruption at the highest level" in awarding the contract.

He also stressed the need for "transparency and fairness" in the state's mechanism for land acquisition, and suggested that a commission be set up to ensure the affected people got adequate compensation.

The Congress had led a march in the city over the issue earlier this week, but state industry minister Nitish Mishra has denied any irregularities, claiming that the company won the contract since, among four bidders, it had agreed to supply electricity to consumers at the lowest rate.

Bhushan, who is known for his activism against graft, also pointed out alleged anomalies in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state, where assembly polls are due later this year.

"I addressed a symposium here earlier in the day where I met a local academician who has done some research on SIR. He has come across wrongful deletion of the names of nine voters, all Muslims, from the voters' list of just one assembly segment in Sheikhpura district.

“Their names cannot be found in the draft electoral rolls nor in the list of 65 lakh people who have been declared as dead, absent and shifted. The EC has simply made these names disappear," Bhushan claimed.

He also charged the EC with having assumed responsibility of "ascertaining citizenship... which is the prerogative of the Government of India, foreign tribunals and courts only", in the name of carrying out SIR.

The legal expert dubbed as "electoral bribes" populist measures announced by the BJP-led government in the run-up to the assembly polls.

Speaking at the same press conference, Satyadeo Ram, CPI(ML) Liberation MLA, claimed that SIR was part of the tactics to divert public attention away from "failures of the ruling NDA, which has been in power for 20 years".

"The regime is not shying away from unleashing chaos as a diversionary tactic ahead of elections, but the people have seen through the game," he asserted.