Nitish Kumar enters the Assembly on Thursday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, July 21: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today refused to issue a statement on the alleged irregularities in the allotment of Bihar Industrial Development Authority (Biada) land in the Assembly despite vociferous demands from the Opposition.

“I will make a statement only after the chief secretary submits his report,” Nitish told reporters in his office. He stressed that any action on the issue would have to be through the official channels of the chief secretary.

Nitish clarified that he had not asked the chief secretary to conduct a probe into the allotment of land by Biada. “I have asked him (chief secretary) to give me a status report on what is appearing in the media,” he said, stressing that he would speak on the issue only after he got all the facts.

The Leader of the Opposition, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, took jibes at the chief minister and declared that he would send the reports of irregularities in Biada land allotment and the CAG report to Anna Hazare to seek his comments. Incidentally, Hazare had praised Nitish for the action taken in Bihar to check corruption.

For the third consecutive day, the proceedings in the Assembly remained disrupted today as the Opposition entered the Well of the House and raised slogans demanding resignation of the Nitish Kumar-led government and a CBI probe into the alleged land scam.

The Speaker, Uday Narayan Choudhary, tried to conduct the Question Hour but nothing could be heard because of noise inside the House. The Speaker’s repeated plea to the Opposition MLAs to sit in their chairs failed to have the desired effect. The ruling party legislators also started shouting at the Opposition and the Speaker was forced to adjourn the House for half-an-hour.

The Speaker rejected the adjournment motion moved by the RJD MLAs on the issue during the Zero Hour, which led to the trouping of the MLAs inside the Well again. Amid jeers of NDA MLAs, the Opposition legislators staged a walk out on the concluding day of the short monsoon session.

Initially, the NDA’s anger against the governor for allegedly withholding the bills and Opposition’s tirade over the firing at Forbesganj dominated the House proceedings. But since Tuesday, the alleged irregularities in the Biada land allotment came to the forefront. The government also faced embarrassment in the House because CAG reports indicated towards financial irregularities in the NDA regime.