Patna, March 29: Fresh from the spectacular victory in UP, Bihar BJP MLAs pushed the smashan politics in the House by charging the state government of following an "appeasement" policy towards one community.
"While the budget allocat-ion of minority welfare has been increased, allocation in other welfare schemes for backward castes and Dalits have been drastically reduced," remarked Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Prem Kumar during Zero Hour today.
BJP MLAs trooped into the Well of the House, raising slogans in favour of building walls around temples and cremation grounds on the pattern of building walls around graveyards.
A visibly angry parliamentary affairs minister Shrawan Kumar alleged that the BJP was raising the same issue again and again. The BJP MLAs had created a ruckus in the House around two weeks ago demanding building walls around cremation grounds which saw a heated exchange of words between the treasury and opposition benches. Today, BJP MLA continued to shout slogans till the House was adjourned till 12.30pm.
Earlier, a question related to poor progress in houses for the poor under the Indira Awas Yojana had minister Shrawan Kumar blaming the Union government for the delay stressing that the Centre had changed the criteria for beneficiaries quite late and even given its first instalment of the central share quite late.
Prem Kumar accused the government of being unable to send the utility certificate. However, he offered the minister to go with him to Delhi and talk together with the Union minister concerned and officials on speeding up the house project in Bihar.
On February 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said a cremation ground should also be constructed in a village if a graveyard were made there, citing an uncommon example to articulate how a government should establish its equitability credentials. "If a kabristan (burial ground) is built in a village, then a smashan (cremation ground) should also be constructed there," Modi had told a rally in Fatehpur, 150km south of Lucknow.
