In the wake of a series of killings in Bihar, Union Minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan today alleged that "Jungle Raj is back" in the state as predicted by the NDA and slammed the Nitish Kumar government, saying there is "no action" as if there is "some connivance".
"Jungle Raj (lawlessness) is back in Bihar. In the run-up to Assembly polls, we were saying that there will be Jungle Raj-2 in Bihar if Nitish-Lalu combine wins the elections.
"They (Nitish and Lalu) countered it saying it will be 'Mangal Raj' (good rule). Now people have to decide whether it is Jungle Raj or Mangal Raj," Paswan said.
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The remarks by the Union Minister, who is an MP from Hajipur in Bihar came on a day when an engineer was found dead with injury marks on his body in Vaishali district, close on the heels of the murder of two engineers in Darbhanga district earlier.
"There is no action from the state government. It seems there is some connivance," Paswan said.
The victim, whose body was found in an orchard this morning in Vaishali, was identified as 42-year-old Ankit Kumar Jha, a Quality Engineer of Reliance IT.
In another incident a foodgrain trader was shot dead by unidentified assailants in a locality under Yahiyapur police station in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district.
Taking strong note of these incidents, Paswan raised questions over the state government's functioning saying investments will not come to the state till law and order is maintained.
"One of the main challenges in the state has been of law and order. As long as there is no law and order, there will be investment. Who will come to invest in the state when engineers and doctors are murdered.
Apparently to blunt the good governance plank of Nitish Kumar, the NDA had repeatedly targetted him for aligning with RJD chief Lalu Prasad during the Assembly election campaign saying that if the RJD-JDU-Congress combine came to power, it will be akin to bringing back Jungle Raj for the second time.
The grand alliance of LJP, RJD and Congress, however, handed over a crushing defeat to the NDA, securing 178 seats in the 243-member House.
Both Lalu and Nitish staged a comeback after their virtual decimation of their parties in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when NDA had won 31 of the 40 seats.
Paswan's comments come against the backdrop of opposition
training its guns on the NDA government, with Congress bringing out a 59-page booklet titled "Pragati Ki Tham Gayi Chaal, Do Saal, Desh Ka Bura Hal" ('The pace of progress has stalled; in two years, the nation's plight has worsened').
Paswan said the government has procured 40,000 tonnes of rabi pulses, especially gram and masoor.
The government has set a procurement target of 1,00,000 tonnes of pulses this rabi season, comprising 80,000 tonnes of chana and 20,000 tonnes of masoor for creating a buffer stock.
The procurement of rabi pulses is underway.
Pulses and onions are being procured from the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF), which has a corpus of Rs 900 crore for this fiscal to support the market interventions.
Pulses output is estimated to be down to 17.06 million tonnes, much lower than the demand of 23.62 million tonnes. The gap is met through imports, Paswan said.
Onion production is estimated to be at 20.33 million tonnes in 2015-16 from 18.92 million tonnes in the previous year, as per government data.
Paswan said the National Food Security Act has been implemented almost all over the country barring Nagaland, and Kerala and Tamil Nadu because of assembly elections. In Nagaland, it will be implemented by July, he said.
Referring to Uttar Pradesh, Paswan said wheat procurement target for the current rabi marketing season has been fixed at 35 lakh tonnes.
He said 4,868 centres have been opened across the state to procure wheat and FCI has opened 132 centres.
Till date, 7.97 lakh tonnes of wheat have been procured in the state and payment has been made directly to the farmers' account, he said, adding that Minimum Support Price (MSP) of wheat has been declared at Rs 1,525 per quintal, which is Rs 17 more than last year's rate.
Paswan also said that National Food Security Act has been implemented in all the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh for which allocation of wheat and rice has been increased by 15.47 per cent and 3.25 per cent respectively.
