Two errant sugar mills lose security deposits

PATNA: Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi informed the state legislative assembly on Tuesday that Rs 20 lakh security deposits of the sugar mills at Ramnagar and Majhaulia were seized for not establishing effluent treatment plants (ETPs) and releasing effluents into the Kohra and Sikrana rivers.
Another sugar mill has been asked to give bank guarantee worth Rs 20 lakh with the assurance that it would establish the ETP. “We will not allow them to release the effluents from the sugar mills into the rivers,” Modi said while replying to a starred question raised by BJP member Ramchandra Sahni.
Meanwhile, the assembly also passed the Appropriation Bill with regard to the first supplementary budget worth Rs 14,330.06 crore for the current fiscal by a voice vote. The House also passed the Rs 1,100 crore worth of supplementary demand made by the rural works department.
Parliamentary affairs minister Shrawan Kumar said the government would consider teaching yoga in colleges if the proposal in this regard comes to the government from the governor and University Grants Commission. The minister was replying to a question raised by RJD member Bhola Yadav.
Earlier, starting the discussion on the Appropriation Bill, senior RJD member Abdul Bari Siddiqui pointed to the assertion made by the deputy CM in the House on Monday that the NDA would go to the 2020 assembly election in the state together under the leadership of CM Nitish Kumar. “Who would board the (RJD-led grand alliance) boat that has too many holes? Any talk about differences within the NDA is rumour,” Modi had said.
“I don’t know why he (Modi) had to make that kind of assertion in the state assembly during his reply to the House debate on the Appropriation Bill. I also don’t know what he is afraid of,” Siddiqui said.
While reviewing flood situation and relief work in the Alinagar constituency of Darbhanga, CM Nitish Kumar had visited Siddiqui’s house at Mirzapur village. It had set tongues wagging in the political circles.