BJP seeks vigilance probe into payments to co preparing Bihar

Opposition BJP today demanded a vigilance probe into the alleged irregularities in the payment of Rs nine crore to a company which it said failed to prepare the 'Bihar Vision document 2025' even after the lapse of seven months.
Prior to the announcement of Bihar assembly polls, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had launched 'Badh Chala Bihar' campaign last year according to which 'Bihar@2025 vision document' was to be prepared on the basis of feedback received from the people of the state.
"We want a vigilance probe into the payment of Rs nine crore to the company which failed to prepare the 'Bihar Vision document 2025' even after the lapse of seven months. The government should also make public the places (villages) where interactive meetings were held for receiving feedback for preparing the vision document," former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi told reporters on the sidelines of his weekly 'Janata Darbar' here.

For preparation of the document, inputs were to be taken from the people of 40,000 villages of the state, Modi claimed, adding, "Out of that, meetings could not be held even in 5,000 villages or places."
But the government made the payment of Rs nine crore at the rate of Rs 2,833 per meeting for the purpose, said Modi, the BJP leader in the upper House of Bihar Legislature.
"Fake meetings were held, fake bills were passed by putting pressure on Information and Public Relations Department (IPR&D) officials," he said, adding all payments were made to the company by August 31, 2015 without getting the Vision document prepared.

Modi, who also held finance portfolio for eight years during NDA regime, questioned the government's decision to award the contract (of collecting inputs for vision document) to the company which was not only registered barely two months ago under Society Registration Act with a capital of Rs one lakh but is also run by persons associated with Prashant Kishore, the poll strategist of the CM during the last Bihar assembly elections.