Former Minister Hits Back With Covert Attack On Laloo

Blacklist Bihar for not meeting RPDS norms: D P Yadav

In a covert move against Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad, former Union food minsiter Devendra Pd Yadav has demanded that Bihar be declared anti-poor and blacklisted by the Centre in allocations for various anti-poverty schemes if the state government failed to launch the revamped public distribution system (RPDS) programme by June 1.

I can go upto any extent on this issue, Yadav said, clearly indicating that ultimately he might take on his own party president and state Chief Minister Laloo Prasad.

Yadav, a Janata Dal MP from Bihar, was not included in Prime Minister I K Gujrals cabinet at the behest of Laloo Prasad. He has been maintaining a silence ever since, promising to open his mouth at an opportune moment. Laloo Prasad is facing a crisis as the CBI has decided to charge him for involvement in the Rs 950 cr animal husbandry scam.

It is the first instance of a senior Janata Dal leader taking an open stance against the party president. Yadavs movement would surely seek to paint the Laloo Prasad government inefficient.

Though Dal leaders have slowly started speaking out that Laloo Prasad should resign and take the court option, Front partners have been openly demanding that Prasad should quit.

Partners of the United Front, especially the Left parties and the Samajwadi Party have already termed the state government corrupt. They have jointly initiated a movement in the state to dislodge Laloo Prasad, who is the head of the major partner of the Front - the Janata Dal.

During his days in the Union food ministry, DP Yadav had refused to budge under Laloo Prasads pressure that the food quota for Bihars 49.96 per cent under-poverty-line population be released to the state government, ignoring the requirement that the state should issue special RPDS red card to the targeted population. Yadav however refused to admit that his movement was targetted at Laloo Prasad. It is not targetted against any individual, he said, and promised to launch mass awareness programmes in all states which failed to launch the programme by June 1.

Till yesterday, only three states - Meghalaya, Punjab and Bihar had not sent their readiness report to the Union food ministry, which is now being looked after by agriculture minsiter Chaturanan Mishra.

Mishra also hails from Bihar. While Meghalaya has been reeling under floods, Punjab has argued that elections led to the delay. Bihar could not give any such reason, except that the number of poor were very large.

Yadav said that the RPDS scheme was announced on January 26 and states had five months to identify the under-poverty-line population and issue ration cards to them. The Bihar government has so far only been able to identify the poor, but is yet to embark on issuing red cards.