Barely a month after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took the BJP support to stay in power, his former ally, the Congress, demanded his resignation over the multi-crore Srijan scam and a Supreme Court-monitored investigation to get to the root of the scam.
Welfare scheme
At the heart of the alleged scam is a Bhagalpur-based NGO, Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahyog Committee, that is accused of siphoning off hundreds of crores meant for welfare scheme in collusion with State government officials.
The scam was carried on by depositing government cheques into the account of the NGO that, in turn, would invest these amounts in bank deposits to earn interest. Claiming that the scam is to the tune of ₹1,000 crore, former Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said, “During the entire period of this scam, Nitish was the Chief Minister and Sushil Kumar Modi was his deputy for a large part. Both of them should resign and an investigation monitored by the court should be ordered.”
The Congress held a special briefing where Mr. Tewari and the former Jharkhand MP, Ajoy Kumar, suggested a BJP link to the scam by showing pictures of senior BJP leaders taking part in functions organised by Srijan Mahila Samiti.
“We want to ask the Prime Minister if it is not true that he is forced to drop two ministers from Bihar in the next Cabinet reshuffle because Srijan fire will engulf them,”said Mr. Tewari.