Bihar CM orders removal of hoardings in Patna

Criticised for the hoardings that have mushroomed in Bihar's capital announcing Janata Dal-United's 'Adhikar Rally', Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday ordered removal of those around statues of great personalities.

The chief minister, who garlanded the statue of Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel on his 137th birth anniversary, ordered the district magistrate that the statues of great personalities should not be obstructed.

The administration thereafter removed hoardings from three roundabouts where statues of Sardar Patel and Jayprakash Narayan are located.

Patna District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar Singh told PTI that following instructions from the CM, he ordered removal of the hoardings put up by JD-U leaders appealing to the people to attend the November 4 'Adhikar Rally'.

Opposition parties have been criticising the government for the large number of hoardings coming up in the state capital for the rally.

Though JD(U) and BJP are running a coalition government in Bihar, the November 4 rally is a solo show of Nitish Kumar's party, seen as an attempt to highlight the CM's popularity ahead of 2014 general elections.

The NDA government has faced embarrassment after an FIR was lodged against jailed former JD-U) MLA Munna Shukla in Vaishali district for demanding Rs 2 crore from a private engineering college for the rally.

RJD Secretary General Ramkripal Yadav, said "The CM has been seeing these hoardings for the past 15 days and has acted now only when RJD raised the issue prominently."

Senior Congress leader Sadanand Singh described this as an "attempt to fool the people".