Nine MLAs of different parties sit on dharna in Bihar

Shedding ideological differences, nine MLAs of Bihar's Muzaffarpur district belonging to different parties today sat on dharna at the district collectorate premises to protest against rising crime graph, corruption and lack of development in the district.
The MLAs - Suresh Sharma, Arjun Rai, Veena Devi, Ashok Singh (all BJP); Ajit Kumar, Rajkumar Raju, Suresh Chanchal, Dinesh Prasad (all JD(U) and Brajkishore Singh (RJD) - all representing assembly constituencies in Muzaffarpur district - sat on day-long dharna drawing the attention of the district administration with regard to spate in crime, lack of development in the district, besides prevalence of largescale corruption in government offices.

All these MLAs had met the district magistrate Anupam Kumar and the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jitendra Rana and other senior officials last week to draw their attention to crime and development related problems in the district and demanded urgent intervention to address the issues raised by the elected representatives.
Explaining their concerns to the reporters, the BJP MLA Suresh Sharma, who represents Muzaffarpur assembly seat, said that the elected representatives were left with no option, but to stage satyagrah (peaceful sit-in) to protest against the district administration's indifference to rising crime, lack of development under various schemes and corruption at various levels in the officials.

"If our concerns are not addressed even now, we will be forced to launch 'jan andolan' (mass movement) to press for our legitimate demands," he said.
Two other MLAs - Ramai Ram and Manoj Kumar Singh - were conspicuous by their absence at the dharna by fellow lawmakers of the districts as both are ministers in the Jitan Ram Manjhi government.
Ram holds transport portfolio, while Singh is the minor irrigation minister in the JD(U) government.
The agitating MLAs tried to raise their demands with the Education Minister Brishen Patel while he was walking past them inside the district collectorate premises to preside over a review meeting of implementation of 20-point programme in Muzaffarpur district, but he refused to entertain them.