Manjhi with Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Sept. 2: Black marketing by small traders is not a crime in Bihar. So believes, and says, chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Manjhi, who, of late, has been making news for repeatedly putting his foot in the mouth, today stirred up another storm when he said that businessmen and traders involved in small time black marketing and hoarding need not worry and can continue with the practice.

The chief minister was speaking at a function organised by the Bihar State Foodgrain Businessmen’s Association on the premises of the Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

“I know that the small traders are also engaged in black marketing. If they are doing so for the sake of their families and children, I am okay with it and I thank them for it. In the past, the state government has taken action against many big people involved in corruption and schools have been opened in their homes. We are after the biggies, the crocodiles involved in such unlawful activities. The small fishes can grow and prosper into big ones,” Manjhi said.

Present at the function were Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh and state agriculture minister Narendra Singh.

Officials at the food and consumer protection department said anyone caught hoarding is prosecuted under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act.

“The punishment may range from three months to even life imprisonment and the same is applicable in Bihar. The Centre recently decided that any shop found hoarding will be seized and the stuff recovered, which can be foodgrain or any other edible, will be distributed among those deserving it. The new rules are, however, yet to be implemented in Bihar,” a department official said.

In June, Bihar had rejected the Centre’s decision allowing states to fix a limit on the quantity of essential commodities that can be stocked. Later, however, the Centre agreed to work closely with the states to check hoarding.

Balram Prasad, the general secretary of the foodgrain businessmen’s association, said black marketing of any scale was not right. “The CM was pointing fingers at the Centre, which has promised to bring back black money but nothing has happened on that front till now. He wanted to say that the Centre and the state governments should target the big traders and businessmen who have stashed away crores,” he said.

This is not the first time that Manjhi has left his partymen squirming.

He recently said he was being stifled since the finance minister and the finance secretary had asked him “to stay in my limits”. Manjhi later issued a clarification stating that finance minister Bijendra Yadav was a “very knowledgeable person” and the finance secretary was a “good soul”.

Manjhi had also raised eyebrows when on August 21, while unveiling B.R. Ambedkar’s statue, he said Bihar would have Dalit rule once their population crosses 22 per cent. Manjhi later said his statement had been distorted.