CPI says Cong equally responsible for plight of Bihar

PATNA: CPI general secretary Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan said on Wednesday that the Congress party has no moral right to talk about development of Bihar as it has ruled this state single handedly for 40 long years and is responsible for its neglect and backwardness.
He lashed out at the the Congress leaders for talking about Central fund given to the state for development schemes as if this fund came from their personal account.He said that such an attitude of Congress leaders will only intensify the Centre-state conflict and is bound to affect the federal structure of the country. Bardhan also held the Congress responsible for skyrocketing prices and said it is only the Left parties and trade unions who are fighting on this issue.
The CPI leader said that the NDA, RJD-LJP and the Congress had ruled the state and are equally responsible for the plight of Bihar. No one could claim to be the champion of development of the state.
Bardhan said that but for 50 percent reservation for the women in panchayat raj institutions (PRIs) and urban local bodies (ULBs), the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government could not claim much as far as working for the development of Bihar goes. "In Nitish regime the state has miserably failed on the front of power generation, which has gone down to eight percent. Similarly, neither any closed industry could be revived nor any new industry was set up during the last five years of NDA rule," he said. "Not even a single IT industry was set up in Nitish regime," the CPI general secretary said.
Talking about Lalu-Paswan alliance's claims on development front, Bardhan simply dismissed it saying there is no point in talking about that.
Bardhan also requested the Election Commission to declare sponsored poll surveys as an electoral offence.