Patna/Mumbai Sep 3 (PTI): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today lashed out at the Maharashtra government for not taking action against MNS chief Raj Thackeray for his threat to throw Biharis out of Maharashtra.

"The MNS chief's diatribes against Biharis pose a challenge to all governments to deal with a person who has been holding out threat to the migrant people. People have the constitutional right to live and work in any part of the country," he told reporters in Patna.

"It is the duty of the central government and the government of the state (Maharashtra) to take note of the conduct of a person like Thackeray and deal sternly with such elements," Kumar said.

In Mumbai, Thackeray accused Hindi news channels of "distorting" his statement. "I want to tell the Hindi news channel to first understand the issue before it is broadcast...Otherwise we know how to deal with it," he said.

Thackeray had on Friday threatened to brand Biharis as "infiltrators" and force them out of Maharashtra if authorities in Bihar take legal action against Mumbai policemen who picked up a teenager from there without informing their counterparts in that state.

Thackeray, whose party has often launched campaigns against Hindi-speaking people in Maharashtra, was reacting to a media report that Bihar chief secretary Navin Kumar has written to Mumbai police commissioner voicing displeasure over the arrest of the youth for vandalising the martyr's memorial during Azad Maidan protest on August 11.

Demanding strong action against the MNS chief, a visibly angry Kumar asked as to how the Centre and the Maharashtra government would deal with terrorism if they could not rein in a person like Thackeray.

"Has the Mumbai police and the Mahashtra government outsourced governance to Thackeray?" he asked.