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Rs 2,386 cr power project for Bihar

Soroor Ahmed in Patna

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today declared that a Rs 2,386-crore power project would be set up at Koel Karo in south Bihar. He also said that the Centre would extend a Rs 50-crore grant to the state government to check the recurring floods in Kosi river in north Bihar.

Vajpayee was speaking at an election rally at Patna's historic Gandhi Maidan.

The prime minister asked the state government to change its style of functioning and said "if it failed to do so, the people will set it right with the help of ballot, not bullet."

He warned that none of those involved in the Bofors bribery scandal would be spared. "Though the Bofors case was unearthed in 1987, the probe failed to make any headway in the last over a decade or so on flimsy ground that all the documents were lying in some foreign country. We took the initiative and succeeded in expediting the case," he said.

Though other speakers, including Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav, targeted their guns on the Rabri government, Vajpayee spent more time hitting out at the Congress party for bringing down his government.

He asked the dozen Union ministers from the state to work for the welfare of the people. "I have given all the important portfolios to Bihar. Now it's their (ministers') duty to perform," he remarked.

Though eight of the 12 Union ministers from Bihar were present on the occasion and the telecommunication minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, sent his message which was read at the meeting, all the three Samata Party ministers - Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar, Defence Minister George Fernandes and Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh - did not turn up.

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