RJD MLAs protest outside the Assembly on Tuesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, July 19: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today promised to take action against the guilty persons in the Forbesganj police firing case, once the judicial commission completes its probe.

“We did not hesitate to act immediately after the police firing,” he stressed, while replying after a two hours special debate on the issue in the House today.

He rejected the Opposition’s criticism that the government had remained insensitive to the incident. Reacting to the charge that the government had not paid compensation to the kin of the victims, Nitish pointed out that it was during the RJD’s regime that the state government passed an order that those killed in police firing would not get compensation until the probe is over.

He, however, stressed that his government had already given Rs 3 lakh compensation to the family of the child killed in the incident. He declared that he had asked chief secretary to probe the reported irregularities in the allotment of land of Biada and asked the Opposition to wait for the probe report.

The Opposition today staged a walk out after the chief minister made his statement.

Earlier, the Leader of the Opposition, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, opened the debate making a blistering attack on the government and alleged that the Nitish government was “insensitive” towards the incident.

“Even after the incident the chief minister and the deputy chief minister did not care to visit the families of the victims,” he said.

He said the police firing was a result of the irregular land allotment. He said the government had actually spent money to make the road, which the promoters of the factory wanted to be blocked.

“The promoters of the factory paid Rs 90 lakh for a 90-year lease on 35 acres and Biada was in the process of spending Rs 3 crore for the boundary of the land,” he said, insisting that the Bihar government was going the Gujarat way.

Over a dozen MLAs from both sides spoke during the debate.