What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is under attack for announcing the purchase of a jet plane and a helicopter.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will be replaced by his deputy and coalition ally Tejashwi Yadav after March next year, claimed state leader of opposition Vijay Sinha on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that Nitish Kumar won’t be able to use the chopper and jet plane his government is planning to purchase.
“He is known as a responsible man. But the ‘Super CM’ (Tejashwi Yadav) is pressurising him to purchase planes and helicopters. What he (Nitish Kumar) does not realise is that he may lose his post any day. Even he knows that he won’t be able to continue as the CM till 2025,” Sinha told reporters in Patna.
The announcement of the new purchases has raised eyebrows in the state, which is reeling under a public debt of more than ₹1.7 lakh crores.
Currently, the Bihar government avails services of one King Air C 90A-B, VT-EBG, a Dauphin SA 365N, and a VT-ENU helicopter to ferry high-profile individuals, according to a document accessed by The New Indian.
On its part, the Nitish-Tejashwi government has said that a jet engine aircraft is required due to the low seating capacity of C-90 aircraft for long-distance travel outside the state. On its decision to purchase a new helicopter, the government said that it is required owing to the short length of the runway located in the remote areas.
Calling the proposed purchases “an instrument of corruption”, Sinha said that the state government would spend ₹350 crores to buy a jet-engine powered aircraft and a chopper to ferry VIP and VVIP figures in the state.
“The father and elder brother of the Super CM asked Nitish Kumar to tour the country to prepare the grounds for becoming the prime minister,” he said, advising the JDU leader to “choose the right path”.
Sinha called the chief minister’s proposed yatra from January 5 as “picnic”. “If he is genuinely concerned about the common people, he should meet families of the people who died of spurious liquor and those who have been killed by criminals.”
