Bihar govt orders review of all decisions taken by depts headed by Tejashwi, RJD ministers

The Bihar government headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday, 16 January ordered a review of all the decisions taken by the departments headed by Tejashwi Yadav and his two ministers -- Lalit Yadav and Ramanand Yadav -- from the RJD quota during the tenure of the Mahagathbandhan in the state.

During the Mahagathbandhan's tenure, Tejashwi Yadav held the Health, Road Construction, Urban Development and Housing and Rural Development portfolios. The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) and the Ministry of Mining and Geology also came under the quota of RJD leaders.

Lalit Yadav was the PHED Minister while Ramanand Yadav was the Mining and Geology minister in the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar.

The Cabinet secretariat passed an order in this regard on Friday to review all the decisions taken from April 1, 2023 to January 27, 2024 by these departments. An official said that a thorough investigation has been initiated in these departments and the outcomes will be shared with the new ministers of Bihar government.

After the recent formation of the NDA government in Bihar, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary had announced that he would initiate inquiries in the departments earlier headed by RJD leaders, especially Tejashwi Yadav, during the Mahagathbandhan's tenure.

Nitish Kumar had also said during the floor test on February 12 that he broke the alliance with the RJD after he learnt about the 'irregularities' in the departments headed by RJD leaders.

Deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha , meanwhile, claimed that large-scale of corruption took place in the Labour Resource department.

“We have been scanning the files of the Labour Resource department where large-scale corruption took place in the purchase of equipment and machineries for the ITI colleges in the state. They had purchased a number of equipment for Rs 50,000 when the actual cost of those equipment was Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000.

“During the Mahagathbandhan's tenure, a number of tainted officials were deployed in the Labour Resource department who held multiple posts, a practice we have decided to do away with,” Sinha said.

“Large-scale irregularities also took place in the Road Construction department, which was headed by Tejashwi Yadav. We have initiated an inquiry into this matter as well,” Sinha said.