Centre threatens Bihar to stop funds for its wilful acts

Patna Aug 06 (UNI) Taking a tough stand against the 'wilful' act of Nitish government, the centre today threatened to stop releasing funds for the National Rural Employment Gurantee Scheme (NREGS) to Bihar if the state government did not revert the nomenculature of the scheme.

Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, while talking to newspersons here gave a clear message to the state government that it would be deprived of the funds ment for the scheme which had been introduced as Bihar Rural Employment Gurantee Scheme (BREGS) instead of NREGS in the state.

This act of Nitish government was sufficient to draw conclusion that the scheme was of the state government and in such circumstances the centre would not release even a single paisa for it, he said.

He described the act of the state government as 'illegal' saying that despite an assurance the state government failed to revert to the nomenculature of the scheme paving way for suspenion of releasing funds.

He dubbed Mr Kumar as a 'cheater and shrewed' person who was playing tricks to get credit among the masses by introduing the centre's developmental schemes as its own.

Instead of misleading people by presenting concocted facts Mr Kumar should have concentrated on concrete works, he said and announced to expose all such acts of the state government.

He further said the state government had taken the innocent people of Bihar for ride by announcing Rs 200 as old age pension which was actually a centre's scheme. It would have been in the interest of the old people if Nitish government too had allocated another Rs 200 from the state, matching the share for the old age pension.

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