Nitish Kumar reviews Bihar agriculture dept after minister Sudhakar Singh claims rampant corruption

After Bihar agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh claimed that there was rampant corruption in the department and he himself was the “chief of thieves,” CM Nitish Kumar chaired a meeting with the department despite the agriculture minister’s absence.

The rift between Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar and agriculture minister Sudhakar Singh escalated as the former chaired a crucial review meeting after the latter claimed that there was rampant corruption in the department. This comes amidst the prevailing drought situation in the state on Saturday.

The relationship between the two leaders deteriorated after Sudhakar Singh threatened to resign from his post last Tuesday. This came during a cabinet meeting when Singh said that there was rampant corruption in the agriculture department and he himself was the “choron ka sardaar [head of the thieves].”

Nitish Kumar was reportedly taken aback by Sudhakar Singh’s response, since the latter did not budge from his comments and alleged that all the officials of the agriculture department were corrupt.

It has now been learnt that the CM was upset with Sudhakar Singh's stand and hence he chose to ignore Singh’s absence from the review meeting on the drought situation prevailing in the state. The principal secretary of the agriculture department, N Saravanan, was also present and discussed all the matters relating to the department.

The principal secretary apprised the CM of steps taken by his department to provide relief to farmers who are suffering due to the drought. He informed that his department distributed Rs 62 crore to almost 4.5 lakh affected farmers as diesel subsidy.

Interestingly, Nitish Kumar also reviewed the work of the disaster management department during the same meeting in which minister Shahnawaz also participated.