Bhagalpur, March 24: Jitan Ram Manjhi continued his diatribe against Nitish Kumar in Bhagalpur on Tuesday a day after accusing the state government of promoting 'estimate scam' in Munger.

The former chief minister also claimed that he had tried to take care of the downtrodden during his nine-month tenure at the helm of affairs but was snubbed a lot.

'The state has the provision of putting sufficient funds for the welfare of the downtrodden and other weaker communities from the funds allotted by the Centre's special component plan and the amount should be fixed as per the population ratio of such communities. But the government here devised a noble way to divert the funds to other works,' he said while citing the example of how the government willingly acted against the interests of the weaker sections.

'Nitish always cries for not sufficient funds for Bihar but in my opinion the state is not economically poor at all. The problem is not utilisation of funds properly and its manipulation in an organised and sophisticated method,' he said at his Lajpat Park rally attended by over 4,000 people.

He criticised Nitish for rejecting his 34-point agenda meant for the poor. 'I have a long political experience since 1980 so I know in and out of every affairs with the state government. Earlier, Nitish disagreed with my suggestions for the welfare of the poor and subsequently allotment of funds for their projects with the easy excuse of finance secretary or finance ministry's objections. But since May, when I used the special power of a chief minister to pass such ordinances through cabinet, I became an eyesore for persons like Nitish,' he added.