Govt calls for report about 'entire facts' of soil purchase

With the soil purchase scam in Patna Zoo creating a flutter in Bihar politics, the state government today called for a detailed report on the matter from the Environment and Forest Department.
RJD President Lalu Prasad's son Tej Pratap Yadav, the state Environment and Forest minister is under attack from the BJP on the issue.
Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh asked Principal Secretary of Environment and Forest Department Vivek Kumar Singh to present "the entire facts" about the issue to him.
The CS confirmed asking the department to present the entire factual report to him about the matter.
He, however, denied ordering any probe into the matter.

Meanwhile, Sushil Modi today urged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to break his silence on the soil purchase scam involving family members of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav.

"The Chief Minister should break his silence (on the soil purchase scam)," he said in a statement.
Sushil Modi also accused the state government officials of trying to suppress the alleged scam on Prasad's direction and warned that such officials will be penalised.
He also said such officials would lose their jobs like it happened in the fodder scam.
Reacting on the government's decision to seek a report on the soil purchase scam, Sushil Kumar Modi trashed it as a "conspiracy to give clean chit to Lalu Prasad's family."

"Seeking report on soil purchase by the government is nothing but a conspiracy to give clean chit to Lalu Prasad's family," Sushil Modi tweeted.
"Which official has the courage to inquire against Lalu Prasad's family...Coalition government will fall," the BJP leader said.
"Father indulged in scam in purchase of fodder for animals, son scripted soil scam," Sushil Modi said in another tweet targeting Lalu Prasad and his family on corruption issue.
The senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday last demanded Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to order an all party probe into the alleged soil purchase scam.
On Thursday, he alleged that earth filling work at Patna Zoo was carried out without a plan or approval and asked the state government to explain why the work was done at all.

He said that the soil was purchased from an under-construction mall registered in the name of a company whose board of directors include several members of Lalu Prasad's family.
The names include those of his minister sons - Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi Prasad Yadav.
"Five lakh cubic feet of soil was transported to Patna Zoo from the mall premises by trucks which made 1000 round trips over three months," he claimed.
The BJP leader also charged the Patna Zoo authorities for making a payment of Rs 90 lakh for soil from the corpus of Bihar Wildlife Conservation Fund by flouting guidelines under which the interest amount of the corpus of Rs 334.41 crore can be spent only for wildlife conservation.

Sushil Modi also said that the Bihar Chief Secretary heads the Bihar Wildlife Conservation Fund and asked him to explain how the funds were used for soil purchase and whether any prior approval was taken in this regard.