Nitish Kumar pays floral tributes to Karpoori Thakur’s statue at Karpoori Ashram in Patna on Monday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Jan. 24: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of concealing names of people who have stashed black money in Swiss banks.

Speaking at a function organised on the 87th birth anniversary of socialist leader and three-time chief minister of Bihar, Jannayak Karpoori Thakur, Nitish said: “The comment of the UPA government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of revealing names of people whose ill-gotten money is stashed in Swiss banks is shocking.”

“According to media reports, more than Rs 280 lakh crore from India is deposited in various secret accounts in Swiss banks. The amount is equivalent to annual budget of our country for two years, but the Union government is mum on bringing back the money, which shows the Prime Minister’s helplessness,” added the chief minister.

The Extremely Backward Castes (EBC) cell of Janata Dal (United) had organised the function, the first official state-level function of the party after the ruling coalition made a clean sweep in last year’s Assembly election.

Making his intention clear that the government will be strict on corruption and the houses of corrupt government officials would be turned into schools, Nitish said: “Fight against corruption was one of the top issues of our party in the Assembly elections and the government stand is clear on dealing strictly with corrupt government officials.”

Nitish also attacked the Manmohan Singh government for failing to check corruption in numerous scams such as Commonwealth Games, 2G Spectrum and Adarsh housing surfacing one after another.

Nitish lashed out at his opponents both within and outside the party and said he was uniting the society by doing welfare for every section and paying special attention to those who had been left behind in the process of development.

“I have united the divided society. Now people are heaving a sigh of relief in a peaceful atmosphere and nobody will like to go back to the dark days,” said Nitish added: “The results of last year’s Assembly elections is neither a victory for the ruling coalition nor the party but a real victory of the people of Bihar.”

The chief minister also sounded an alert among his party members to get rid of his image praising, saying they should not project him as the future Prime Minister of the country, as he wanted to serve Bihar for a longer period so as to make it as a developed state. The CM said Bihar’s image has changed and the environment in the state is free from fear and terror but still there was work to be done in the health, education, power and agriculture sectors.

JD (U) state president Vasistha Narayan Singh said: “Karpoori Thakur also always fought for the underprivileged and was a towering personality which gives Bihar politics a social perspective.”

Many state leaders of JD(U), including party MLAs and ministers, were present on the occasion.