PATNA: A day after the names of two ministers emerged among those who had allegedly approached Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) with recommendations to help their favoured candidates get jobs, the Opposition BJP and its allies on Saturday created ruckus in the Assembly and demanded that the two ministers be sacked.
Accusing the Nitish Kumar-led grand alliance government of shielding the accused in the BSSC question paper leak case, legislators of BJP and its allies RLSP and HAM shouted slogans against the government and demanded that the probe into the case be handed over to CBI. Both the Houses of the legislature witnessed bedlam as the Opposition legislators trooped into the well demanding that the two ministers be sacked immediately.
“It is no small allegation against the two ministers… When a minister calls up or sends text messages to senior officials with some recommendations, it is considered an order of the state government,” said senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi. “The government should sack the two ministers immediately and hand over the case to CBI for an impartial probe,” he added.
Modi also alleged that health minister Tej Pratap Yadav’s officer-on-special duty Shankar Prasad had given several instructions over the phone to the BSSC officials in connection of the recruitment of auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) conducted by BSSC earlier.
“Chief Minister Nitish Kumar must take action now. He had earlier ignored the Opposition’s demand to reveal the names of ministers in the paper leak case. Now the names are out in the probe by the SIT,” said Prem Kumar, the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.
Sources said a report submitted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the BSSC question paper leak case to the special vigilance court bears the names of law and PHED minister Krishnandan Prasad Varma of JD(U) and cooperative minister Alok Mehta of RJD among a number of politicians who had allegedly recommended selection of their favoured candidates.
The names of ex-MP and RJD national vice-president Raghubansh Prasad Singh, JD(U) legislator Ram Balak Singh and BJP legislator Suresh Kumar Sharma are also reportedly part of this report submitted by SIT. The names of these politicians were included after they were found in mobile phone call details of the arrested BSSC secretary Parmeshwar Ram, said SIT sources.