Sharad Yadav challenges Laloo

SAHARSA: Union food and civil supply minister and national president of Janata Dal(U) Sharad Yadav threw an open challenge to his arch-rival, RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav to sit together anywhere and furnish the details of the development works completed or taken up by their respective governments.
Reacting sharply to Laloo''s outbursts at a public meeting at Madhepura, Sharad, in a satirical vein, quipped that Laloo was talking all about Musharraf and other useless national and international issues but did not speak even a single word about his government''s performance.
Sharad was speaking while presiding over the function and a large large public meeting at Diwari Sthaan, nearly 4 km away from Saharsa on the eve of laying foundation stone of 20 kW high power transmission (HPT) centre by the union minister for information and broadcasting Ravi Shankar Prasad who claimed it to be the only HPT in Bihar. This HPT, he said, would be built at an estimated cost of Rs 12 crore and would cover an audience range of more than 80 km radius.
Prasad claimed that the NDA government, led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had invested more than Rs 30,000 crore for the development of Bihar and the PM, he said that admitted that the country could not prosper unless the state of Bihar reaches the zenith of development.
"All the Union ministers from Bihar are striving hard for the development of our state," he said. Prasad also took strong exception to Laloo''s utterances at Madhepura on Tuesday and said he had befooled the people of Madhepura by saying "Rome hai Pope ka, Madhepura hei gope ka". "People would have been pleased, if Laloo had promised to bring the light of development in the eyes of even a single of Gope. Is it needed to become the samadhi of Laloo in order to ensure repair of roads in any village?" he quipped.
Sharad, who had defeated the RJD supremo in the last parliamentary election at Madehpura, was also in a retaliatory mood against Laloo''s high-sounding words at Madhepura on Tuesday and said Laloo had betrayed the people of Madhepura. "In the last election too, I had fought on the NDA''s manifesto and hence thee was no point in accusing us of joining the BJP. In fact it is Laloo and his party that had betrayed the people of Madhepura and Bihar. They had fought against Congress and after the elections, they joined hands with Congress. It was insult for the people of Madhepura," he said and added in Koshi region alone, the NDA government at the Centre had invested more than Rs 4,500 crore in various schemes. The local JD(U) MP, Dinesh Chandra Yadav, demanded establishment of a TV studio and the DD News channel at Saharsa.