Bihar Assembly Election 2020: Nitish govt turned cities into dumpyards, alleges Congress

Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala on Sunday claimed that the public of Bihar were condemned to lead a miserable life, as the Nitish Kumar-led government, which talks big on environmental issues, did precious little to ensure basic amenities for healthy and sustainable living.

Surjewala made the allegation while speaking to media persons near a heap of garbage in front of the General Post Office (GPO) in Patna.

He alleged that Patna has become a landfill site for civic body waste. He punctured holes in chief minister Nitish Kumar’s claims of making Bihar’s capital free from pollutants and an environment-friendly city.

He cited the latest Swachh Survekshan report released by the Central government.

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Surjewala said Patna was assessed to be the dirtiest among 47 cities, which have a population of over 1 million.

“Danapur cantonment was rated the most unclean among 62 cantonments across the country,” he added.

“All cities and towns in Bihar are in a mess, as the state government could not utilise a sum of Rs 1,636.02 crore, which was allocated by the Centre between the financial years of 2016 and 2019,” said Surjewala, citing a report submitted in the Lok Sabha.

He further cited the observations made by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which had allegedly stated that Bihar was heading for an emergency owing to growing load of civic body waste and in the absence of its proper disposal. “Patna is the third-most polluted city in the country and more than 4,000 people fall prey to growing contamination in the air every year,” said Surjewala, citing the NGT report.

He flayed the state government’s claim on Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal scheme and claimed that only 1.88% households in the state were connected with the tap water supply. “The standing committee of Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has stated that 3.36 lakh households out of 1.78 crore have water supply in the state,” said Surjewala.

The Centre’s food and civil supplies department report also made it clear that the potable water supplied in Patna’s households was not fit for human consumption.

“The state government did precious little to arrange supply of arsenic and fluoride free water for drinking in as many as 21 districts,” he said.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesman Pawan Khera and Congress’s media panelist Prem Chandra Mishra also claimed that all the programmes being run by the state government for conservation of ecology were flawed at the conceptual level.