Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday raised a new slogan, "Greed, quit India", to coincide with 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement when the famous "Quit India" slogan to rid the nation of foreign rulers was first raised.
Nitish came up with the slogan during Bihar Prithvi Divas, an event organised by the environment and forest department. Bihar Prithvi Divas is observed on August 9 since 2011 to make people aware of the importance of environment and promote ideas, which could contribute towards minimising the adverse impact of pollution and other factors on the planet.
Though the chief minister came up with the slogan to underline the fact that the earth has enough for everyone's need, sources in the ruling JDU said the slogan was aimed at corruption, an issue citing which he broke the alliance with Lalu Prasad's RJD last month. "The JDU has been maintaining zero tolerance against corruption and the chief minister's assertion at the Bihar Prithvi Divas event should be seen in that light too," said a JDU functionary.
Though Nitish didn't give any political colour to his speech, he did speak on the growing greed by some and underlined the need to check such tendencies. Quoting Mahatma Gandhi he said: "The Earth has enough for everyone's needs, but not enough for their greed."
In the past, Nitish had been raising the greed issue whenever he spoken about corruption. "Shrouds have no pockets" has been his favourite line during his anti-corruption utterances.
He spoke at length on issues like importance of planting trees, waste management, discouraging use of plastic and polythene, promoting use of environment-friendly means of transportation, taking care of water bodies and having empathy for animals.
He also spoke on the state government's plan to promote organic farming along the banks of river Ganga.
Speaking on stray animals, Nitish said such animals were being kept in shelters where they were being provided food and their excreta-urine would be used for organic farming.
He reminded participants about the threat of global warming and maintained that those working to check environmental imbalance were not helping themselves but also the generations to come.
Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who also heads the environment and forest department, said at the event: "The Bihar Prithvi Divas will be organised in government and private schools from 2018." He laid emphasis on the importance of plantation and reminded the participants that over-exploitation of natural resources had led to several problems the world is facing today.
Roads from waste
The rural works department will use waste plastic to build 657km of rural roads this year, the chief minister said during a review meeting of the department on Wednesday. Rural works department minister Shailesh Kumar and development commissioner Shishir Sinha were also present at the meeting.
