Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has decided to change the name of his proposed “Mhila Samvad Yatra” to “Pragati Yatra”. Photo credit: PTI
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has decided to rename his proposed “Mahila Samvad Yatra” as “Pragati Yatra” and it will now begin on December 23. The trip was originally planned for December 15.
However, the trip had to be postponed after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav sparked controversy and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav promised a cash transfer scheme for women in the state. The RJD chief had remarked that the chief minister wanted to “woo women” with public outreach programmes.
Meanwhile, Yadav called the trip a misuse of people’s money.
The Bihar Cabinet has approved an expenditure of Rs 225 crore for Mr. Kumar’s travel. Responding to reporters’ questions about Mr. Kumar’s visit, former Union Minister Mr. Prasad said, “Nayan is going to sleep(He is going to see the ladies).
The first leg of his journey will conclude on December 28 in Vaishali district. Mr. Kumar has not changed the starting point of the journey and it will start from Valmikinagar in West Champaran district. He will cover 6 districts namely West Champaran, East Champaran, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur and Vaishali in the first phase.
Earlier, Mahila Samvad Yatra was scheduled to start from December 15. However, on the eve of the yatra, the RJD had promised women a cash transfer scheme of ₹ 2,500 a month.
Additional Chief Secretary of the Cabinet Secretariat, S. Siddharth, formally issued a letter on Tuesday and informed that the Chief Minister will hold a review meeting in the respective districts during the trip.
Reacting to the change in the name of the trip, Yadav said in Madhepura, “Nitish Kumar because of his habits, character, conduct and playfulness. G The name of the same trip has been changed several times in a fortnight. First women’s dialogue, then social reform and now Pragati Yatra. This shows how mentally disturbed and unstable he is.
He then posed ten questions to the Chief Minister and asked him to answer them before leaving for the trip.
How many of the problems raised by the people’s representatives were solved during the solution journey? Despite assurances and instructions, how many problems registered in the solution journey have not yet been solved? Isn’t he to blame for the problem not being solved?’, Yadav asked.
He further questioned, ‘Why has the complaint raised by the people in the Chief Minister’s Janata Darbar not been addressed so far? Isn’t it freedom to rob the traveling officer? In this journey, will you review the progress of the availability of alcohol at home, the collusion of the police in the prohibition of alcohol and the failure of the prohibition of alcohol?
Criticizing his journey, Yadav said that the ‘tired chief minister’ and ‘retired officer’ who extorted money from the district level officials by threatening them with transfer.
Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Kumar had launched a “Solution Yatra” and traveled across the state, meeting people and talking about his government’s development work, which resulted in winning 12 parliamentary seats.
Most of the time, Mr. Kumar has benefited from his travels except the Sankalp Yatra before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in which the JDU won only two seats.
published – December 18, 2024 at 05:11 pm IST