Patna, July 17 (IANS) Congress party workers in Bihar staged a sit-in here Saturday demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after the Patna High Court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against him into alleged financial irregularities of Rs.11,412 crore.
Hundreds of Congress workers and leaders staged a day-long sit-in at Kargil Chowk near Gandhi Maidan here. This comes ahead of the forthcoming state assembly polls in October-November this year.
"Nitish Kumar has no right to continue in office. He should step down on moral grounds. The Congress will launch a statewide campaign to expose his involvement in the scam. After the scam hit headlines, his clean image and good governance are being questioned by people," state Congress president Choudhary Mahboob Ali Qaiser told IANS.
He said the Congress will stage protests at the district and panchayat levels as the central government funds provided to the state for development schemes had been "looted".
Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) have decided to meet Governor Devanand Kunwar Saturday or Sunday to submit a memorandum in this connection.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Friday said Nitish Kumar should resign as he was no more a leader with a clean image. "The court ordering for a CBI probe against Nitish Kumar was enough for him to resign," Lalu Prasad said.
On Thursday, a division bench of Chief Justice R.M. Doshit and Justice S.K. Katariyar handed over the probe to the CBI. The court observed that it was necessary to hand over the probe as the accused in the case are the chief minister, the deputy chief minister and 45 others, including ministers and top officials.
Petitioner Arvind Kumar pointed to financial irregularities in the development funds during 2002-2008 in Bihar.
He said the report of the accountant general (AG) of Bihar formed the basis of his complaint. In the report, the AG mentioned the financial irregularities in various funds meant for the development in the state.
The AG, in his report, had mentioned that the detailed bills to the tune of Rs.1,100 crore were not available and the state government could not provide the same to the AG for calculation and assessment.
The court has fixed July 26 as next hearing date in the case.
Earlier this week, a complaint was filed by Arwal district-based social activist Mohan Kumar in the special vigilance court of Patna, in which Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and 45 others have been accused of financial irregularities involving Rs.11,412 crore.