Lalu misleading people on providing land to Railways by Bihar govt

Patna, Nov 19 (UNI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today dubbed as baseless Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's allegation of not providing land to the Railways for its project by the state government, and said pace of works of the ongoing projects was tardy.

Mr Kumar told reporters here that instead of executing various railway projects in Bihar, Mr Prasad was only misleading the people of the state by making beseless allegations about non-availability of land.

'' Various projects, including the Harnaut and doubling of tracks between Patna and Gaya, are not being executed despite land being not the issue in these projects, '' he pointed out.

'' I will not allow the Nandigram-like situaion to occur in Bihar as the state government has made the compensation rules very friendly to the land owners and they are willing to make available their land to state government for proposed industrial projects and educational institutions, '' he said adding farmers had voluntarily offered to provide their land for IIT institution in Bihta and a medical college in Nalanda.

Mr Kumar said Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan should take initiative to establish a steel city in Bihar like that of Bokaro Steel city in Jharkhand.

'' The Bihar government is prepared to make available thousands of acres of lands for the purpose, '' he added.

UNI