Nitish, Lalu responsible for 'backward' Seemanchal: Owaisi

In a bid to woo minority votes ahead of the Assembly polls here, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi today flayed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad holding them responsible for the backwardness of Seemanchal region in Bihar.
"The chief minister's claim about development of Seemanchal region is an eyewash and a bundle of lies as the area continues to remain backward," Owaisi told a public gathering here during his maiden visit to Bihar.
"Both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad are responsible for backwardness of Seemanchal region and exploitation of the people... An injustice has been meted out to you all," he told the audience, running into hundreds.

Owaisi, a three-term Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad, also attacked both the Congress and the BJP for not showing the seriousness to develop Seemanchal in northeastern Bihar, which has a sizeabale minority population.
"If the Centre is indeed serious about development of Seemanchal region, then it could have set up a special development council under Article 371 of the Constitution to speed up development works," the AIMIM supremo said.
He alleged that Kumar, a senior JD-U leader, was guilty of giving facelift to only his native Nalanda district and the state capital Patna even as the border districts continued to lag behind in development in comparison to other districts.

As a result of improvement in education infrastructure structure in Nalanda district, the students passing out in matriculation examination ran away with scholarship worth Rs 12 crore even as their counterparts in Seemanchal districts received only Rs two crore, he alleged.
Reiterating that injustice has been meted out to Seemanchal region and its people, Owaisi vowed to fight for the rights of local people.