Patna, March 8: Bihar State Housing Board (BSHB) will soon evict those illegally occupying its flats and land.
Urban development minister Maheshwar Hazari gave this assurance to the House on Tuesday in response to a call attention by BJP MLA Sachindra Prasad Singh and other BJP legislators over not allotting any flat or land in 15 years.
Since its formation in 1982, the BSHB has allotted 20,000 flats to people across the state. The minister said rules needed to be tweaked to accommodate quotas. "Once we frame the new rules, the allocation of flats and land will resume," the minister told the House.
The BJP MLAs said land and flats made by the board were illegally occupied. "Forty per cent of 69 high income flats made in Kankerbagh, where I reside, are illegally occupied," said a BJP MLA, while Sanjay Saraogi, his party colleague from Darbhanga, pointed out that most of the flats and land of the board were illegally occupied. "The flats have become dens of criminals," Saraogi alleged.
The minister assured the House he would free the illegally occupied land and flats of encroachment.
During Zero Hour, BJP MLA Promod Kumar raised the issue of the crime situation in Motihari town, pointing out that there was a feeling of terror among traders after a brazen loot.
Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar alleged that schemes in which the local MLAs had the authority to recommend development projects were being withdrawn. The BJP MLAs also trooped to the Well of the House and raised slogans against the chief minister.
During Question Hour, Nitish said the questions on the education department had been marked for secondary education by the Assembly secretariat. "The merger of all sections of education into one department was done a decade ago. It is unfortunate that the secretariat is still not aware of this fact," he said. Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said the mistake would be rectified in future.
In response to a question by JDU MLA Shyam Rajak, education minister Ashok Choudhary claimed that the government had cleared payments of private schools to accommodate underprivileged children under the Right to Education Act (enforced in Bihar from 2011) till 2014-15 had been cleared and the department was in the process of clearing bills for 2015-16 in which Patna private schools would be paid around Rs 15 crore.
BJP MLAs alleged that the government's delayed payments had led to embarrassment for the underprivileged children and their parents. Under the Right to Education Act, private schools are to reserve 25 per cent of their seats for such children.
In response to another question by BJP MLA Promod Kumar, minister for excise and registration Abdul Jalil Mastan said the government was considering lowering the stamp duty on loans up to Rs 50,000 from Rs 1,000 to Rs 200.
The BJP MLA said that the Prime Minister Mudra Yojana was meant to help small-scale entrepreneurs but the banks were charging exorbitant stamp duty for the loans.
