Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, November 2
A leader of the state Janata Dal United, an ally of BJP in Bihar, on Monday created a political controversy by alleging the last week’s income tax raids and searches on the contractors at different places in Bihar was made on the instructions of the top BJP leaders.
The JDU leader himself is a contractor entrusted with the different pet projects of the chief minister, Nitish Kumar- Saat Nischay (seven Resolves) for facilitating drinking water in every household and drainage in every village-known as Jal, Nal yojana. However, BJP general secretary Bhupinder Yadav denied the charge and claimed all prescribed norms were followed.
Honest and transparency are the two special characteristics of the Nitish Kumar government. IT department action was initiated after complaints were received by the authorities.
Ravi Chaurasiya, general secretary of the Youth wing of JDU, who is also managing director of a construction company has alleged IT raids were done on the instructions of some top BJP leaders. He alleged IT authorities misbehaved with his wife and children. IT officials from Dhanbad, Muzaffarpur, Patna, Gaya searched the offices and residential premises of the contractor.
He claimed he was in the construction business since 2007 and started work in Gaya 13 years ago. He claimed he was an honest taxpayer and if the harassment continued he would migrate to another state. He is considered close to JDU MLA of Gaya, his friends and claimed and alleged BJP deliberately harassed him.
Income-tax raids were conducted at the residences and offices of other contractors associated with Nal-Jal,_Kal yojna and Bhagalpur, Hilsa, Hanuman Nagar, Digha Patliputra Colony, Frazer Road, Katihar and Gaya. Business premises of two government contractors of the scheme at Purnia were also raided during the last two days.
IT officials claimed to have recovered Rs 3.21 crore in cash during the raids and found evidence of unaccounted money of Rs 75 crore.
Grand Alliance CM candidate Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said the recoveries were the tip of the iceberg only and it confirmed his allegation of large-scale corruption in the implementation of the scheme. LJP president Chirag Paswan who had been alleging misuse of central funds in the Nal-Jal-Kal scheme said the searches were done after IT officials received confirmed reports of tax evasion and irregularities in the implementation of the scheme. He threatened that if LJP-BJP government came to power, an investigation would be instituted on the implementation of the scheme and the officers and the chief minister would be prosecuted if found guilty of misappropriation of funds.
