Nitish Kumar should resign for incompetent govt: RJD

Slamming the state government over its alleged failure to deal with the rain-related woes, senior RJD leader Jagdanand Singh on Tuesday said the Nitish Kumar- led dispensation in a bid to hide its incompetence has initiated action against the municipal corporation and urban body officials.

Demanding Kumar's resignation from the post of the chief minister, Singh said the government's "irresponsible and careless attitude" was to be blamed for the "unprecedented" waterlogging in the city, which lasted for more than 10 days, following bouts of heavy rain in September end.

His reaction came in the backdrop of the state government on Monday placing officials under suspension, withholding payment of their salaries and issuing show-cause notices for lapses in the discharge of their duties when the state capital was reeling under worst-ever waterlogging in three decades.

The senior RJD leader disapproved of an ink attack on Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey during the day. "No one should indulge in such acts as it would give the state government an opportunity to use force," Singh, who had lost to Choubey in the recent Parliamentary election from Buxar in the state, told reporters.

Briefing journalists, Chief Secretary Deepak Kumar said on Monday several errant officials posted in the Patna Municipal Corporation and Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BUIDCO) have been taken to task following a review meeting conducted by the top government officials.

"The Nitish Kumar government is in deep slumber. It did not take any measure to avoid waterlogging. The crisis is the result of the government's irresponsible and careless attitude," Singh, a close associate of Lalu Prasad and a former state minister, said. Referring to the chief minister as "Senapati", the RJD leader said the city had to bear the consequences of Kumar and his government's inefficiency.

"Suspending one or two officials or issuing show-cause notices to grade III and IV employees will not absolve him (Nitish Kumar) of his responsibilities. Kumar, as the Senapati, should resign as his government has failed to tackle the crisis," the former MP said. Noting that the city had received more rainfall in 2016 when compared to this year, he said the situation then was efficiently handled by deputy chief minister and RJD heir apparent Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

The JD(U) and the RJD had joined hands to win the 2015 assembly polls. Congress was also a member of the Grand Alliance. Kumar took charge as the chief minister of the state and Yadav as his deputy. The grand alliance disintegrated in 2017 with Kumar leaving it and returning to the NDA. Singh also said that a similar situation was witnessed by the city in 1994 when he was the water resources minister, but the matter was resolved in 36 hours. "I had personally monitored the situation then and made sure that the water was flushed out within 36 hours. The present government, however, had to rescue its own deputy CM (Sushil Modi) from his flooded residence," he maintained.