Chief minister Nitish Kumar (second from left) and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi launch the free house scheme for BPL families at Danapur on Saturday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Aug. 27: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today allotted free houses to 350 people living below the poverty line (BPL) under the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) at Danapur. The free house scheme was launched for all districts of Bihar at a camp today.

Nitish handed over bank passbooks with Rs 30,000 deposited in the accounts of beneficiaries as the first instalment of Rs 45,000.

Thousands of people took part in the function.

However, around 50 activists of All India Students’ Federation (AISF) raised slogans against the chief minister for not conducting student union elections due for the past 20 years in the universities.

As soon as Kumar came to the podium to deliver speech, the AISF activists started raising slogans holding banners and slogans in their hands. But Nitish let them go on raising slogans and even asked the police officials not to touch them.

“No police official will touch the students, let them protest against me. It is not going to harm my speech. They just want to appear in the media, that’s why they are doing such a thing. Let them shout and protest.”

District magistrate (DM) Sanjay Kumar Singh and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Alok Kumar asked junior officials to leave the students alone.

They kept on shouting but Kumar did not stop his speech and continued addressing the gathering.

Speaking on the occasion, Nitish said: “The poor people shall get full benefit from the schemes and transparency will be maintained in its execution. We have organised such kind of camps in the past where people have directly received the money.”

Citing the example of the Aurangabad case in which five Mahadalit family members had committed suicide after Rs 20,000 was fraudulently withdrawn from their account by some middlemen, he said: “There is no place for middlemen to fiddle with the beneficiaries’ accounts. The money has been deposited in their accounts and they can only withdraw it.”

On checking the middlemen, Nitish said: “These middlemen will be treated like any other criminal, if caught. We will deal with them in the manner we deal with criminals.”

Nitish added: “I would request all of you to kindly keep the bank passbook with you always. Do not give it to others. If anyone tries to fiddle with poor people’s money, he will be sternly dealt with. The offenders will be put on speedy trial.”

At the end of the function, Nitish asked the DM and the SSP not to take any action against any of the AISF activists and said: “Do not do anything with them, let them go. These students are not aware what we are doing over here.”

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said the bank has been instructed to provide all possible help to poor people.