Minister flays Begusarai Nagar Parishad chairman

BEGUSARAI: Cleanliness rally-cum-workshop organised here recently at the Gandhi Stadium by the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) took a curious turn when the urban development minister Shree Narayan Yadav, who belongs to the district, asked the Begusarai Nagar Parishad chairman Alok Kumar Agrawal to exercise his powers within limits. He asked him to go through the Panchayati Raj Act and act accordingly.
Reacting over the reported statements of the Nagar Parishad chairman that there is nothing like a government in the state and it is run unconstitutionally and in a dictatorial way, the minister told him "nothing new is going to happen and you should do things the way your predecessors have done."
Addressing the chairman he said, "aapke chahne sei khunta nahin garega".
Addressing the Panchayati Raj functionaries, assembled from the various parts of the district, Yadav said that the state government is not in a position to provide them facilities at par with the MLAs, MLCs or MPs. He asked them to work for the betterment of the people and the society. Supporting the stand taken by the Nagar Parishad''s officiating executive officer-cum-district transport officer Ram Prakash Yadav in his row with the chairman, the urban development minister said that the Nagar Parishad will have to make payment of all the dues spent prior to the constitution of the Nagar Parishad.
The Nagar Parishad in a recent meeting not only imposed ban on the payment of about Rs 54 lakh dues but also constituted a nine-member enquiry committee to probe all the 16 schemes involving around Rs two crore and completed in about five months prior to the constitution of the Nagar Parishad.
The chairman is also facing an enquiry ordered by the district magistrate, K P Ramaiah, following allegations of financial irregularity and dictatorial way of functioning levelled against him by the executive officer.
The minister for PHED, Rama Devi, in her inaugural address, asked the three-tier Panchayati Raj functionaries to help the department and the government in the supply of pure drinking water.