Gandhi's statue on railway station irks Nitish

Patna, Oct 09 (UNI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today strongly reacted to the installation of Mahatma Gandhi's statue at Motihari railway station by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and dubbed it as "an unprecedented act of political bete noire".

Mr Kumar told newspersons here that by doing so Mr Prasad had ignored the directions of the first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, who had installed statue of great personalities at railway station. Such proposals were moved before him during his tenure as Railway Minister, he recalled keeping in view the dignity of Bapuji, he turned down such proposals.

Mr Kumar said that "Nehru was not only a Congress leader but was a freedom fighter and great thinker of his era".

He lamented at the "autocratic style of functioning" of Mr Prasad adding that "the Railway Minister acts willfuly".

Mr Kumar recalled that the Railway Minister had rang him up recently and informed his desire for renaming Motihari railway station as 'Bapu Dham station'.

Mr Kumar said that he appreciated the desire of Mr Prasad and supported his proposal.

To a query, he said that the interim report of Bhagalpur riots would be submitted soon and actions taken as per the recommendations made by the commission constituted for fresh inquiry into the riots.

Regarding by-elections of Lok sabha in Bhagalpur and Nalanda parliamentry constituencies, Mr Kumar hoped that the people would vote on the basis of works taken up by the government.

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