Patna, Dec. 22: The JDU is gearing up to disqualify four more dissident MLAs.
Party sources said the parliamentary affairs minister Shravan Kumar is likely to submit another petition seeking disqualification of the MLAs for anti-party activities. Those likely to face the axe include former friend of Nitish Kumar and expelled JDU MLA Rajiv Ranjan.
A bitter critic of the RJD-JDU alliance, the MLA was recently made the convener of the NDA (comprising the BJP, LJP, RLSP) in Nalanda district. The rebel MLA has however promised to write to chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi with aproposal. 'Why disqualify me through the long process, making use of the Speaker? I am willing to quit the moment the government refers the medicine scam and irregularities in allocation of country made liquor distribution rights to the CBI. I will not even wait for the findings,' he declared.
He alleged large-scale corruption even in the procurement of foodgrain from farmers. 'The farmers were supposed to get Rs 1,360 per quintal, announced by the central government, and Rs 300 per quintal as bonus, announced by the state government. But most farmers have already sold their produce to middlemen at Rs 1,200 per quintal under distress sale,' Rajiv Ranjan said.
The middlemen will now sell it to the government for Rs 1,660 a quintal, 'making a neat profit of Rs 460 per quintal,' he alleged, stressing that some 'clean-faced politicians' were involved in both the liquor and food procurement scam.
Ranjan also alleged that the government had failed to distribute ration cards to the poor, making a mockery of the Food Security Act.
The JDU faced rebellion from 18 of its MLAs out of which four have already been disqualified and the verdict on four others is pending with Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary. The rumour in political circles is that the decision is to be announced after the Assembly session concludes on December 26.
Ranjan, an engineering college friend of Nitish, was extremely critical of 'rampant corruption' in the state and the JDU's alliance with the RJD. He publicly denounced the Jitan Ram Manjhi government, saying transfer and posting of officials and employees was a business worth Rs 250 crore. He had even suggested the government enact a Right to Bribery law.
