Bihar to celebrate Arun Jaitley's birth anniversary as state

The Nitish Kumar ministry on Tuesdy decided to celebrate former Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley's birth anniversary on December 28 as a state function every year.

Decision to this effect was taken in the cabinet meeting presided over by the Chief Minister here.

Notably Kumar had on December 28 last unveiled Jaitley's life-size statue in Kankarbagh area of the state capital on occasion of his birth anniversary.

The veteran leader died at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi on August 24 this year.

The departed BJP leader had close bonding with the Bihar where he served as party in-charge for a long time and played an important role in functioning of the NDA coalition in the state since the days they formed a government there ending 15 -year rule of the RJD in 2005 end.

In other important decisions, the state cabinet approved Rs 19.40 crore as advance from the Bihar Contingency Fund (BCF) for forming human chain across the state on January 19, 2020 in support of prohibition and on the issue of climate change. The programme is also against the practise of dowry and child marriage.

The mammoth human chain will be formed for half-an-hour between 11:30 to 12 noon on that day, Road Construction Department's Principal Secretary Amrit Lal Meena told reporters while briefing about the cabinet deliberations.

The cm in course of his ongoing statewide "Jal-Jiwan- Hariyali yatra" (tour) is exhorting people to show their commitment towards the causes by participating in the function.

He has been mentioning that over four crore people had participated in the human chain formed on January 21, 2017 in support of prohibition while in the succeeding year citizens stood holding hands of each other in a 14,000 km stretch against the social evils of dowry and child marriage.

In another significant decision, the cabinet gave its nod to extend the R-block Digha 4/6 lane road - the construction for which is currently underway - upto Ganga Path, a 20.50 km long stretch being built along river Ganga from Digha to Didarganj, through a 1.3 km long road, the RCD Principal Secretary said.

This stretch will be the second phase of the R-block Digha 4/6 lane road while its first phase of 5.80 km long road will be made operational by August 15, 2020, he said.

A sum of Rs 69.55 crore was approved for the purpose, Meena said.

In order to provide better connectivity between Patna and Rajgir, the cabinet approved the revised estimate of Rs 236.65 crore for construction of 22.17 km road between Noorsarai and Silao, Meena said.

With the completion of this stretch and the proposed Karauta-Salepur one, travel time between Patna and the famous tourist destination of Rajgir, about 85 km, will come down to 75 minutes, he said.

The meeting gave green signal to a proposal to dismiss 16 doctors from the service for being unauthorisedly absent from the duty for past several years, Meena said adding they were posted as medical officers in different primary health centres, referral hospitals, sadar hospitals etc.