“Need to fix accountability, take responsibility”: Chirag Paswan on back-to-back bridge collapse incidents in Bihar

New Delhi [India], July 16 (ANI): In the backdrop of multiple incidents of bridge collapse in Bihar in recent days, Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan has admitted that there is a need to “fix accountability” and take “responsibility” for such lapses.

“This is a serious issue. The way bridges have been collapsing back-to-back in the state cannot be tolerated. One needs to fix accountability and take responsibility for this.

We need to set precedent so that such mistakes do not happen in the future. Till the time accountability is not fixed, no one is held responsible and not investigated, these will continue,” Paswan said in a freewheeling conversation with ANI.

Paswan, who is Union Minister of Food Processing Industries, said if there is compromise with quality in the construction of these bridges, then there might have been corruption.

“The Chief Minister has said that he has zero tolerance for corruption. If there has been compromise with quality, then there might have been corruption somewhere. Whoever has done it needs to be held accountable so that there is no compromise on quality in future,” he said.

The Union Minister said rather than blame game, the need is to take responsibility so that such incidents do not recur.

“I had a discussion with the Chief Minister about this. He absolutely agrees to this and we are making sure…I am not going into which government was in power then, who were there in the alliance, who was the Minister because that will lead to allegations and counter-allegations. The buck needs to stop somewhere and we are ready. I am ready to take responsibility that it was wrong from the part of our government, whoever was in the government in the past. If it has happened today, we need to work on it and we will do that,” the Hajipur MP said.

Speaking about his vision for Bihar, Paswan referred to the Nalanda University and said that the state had been a leader in education field in the past.

“If you talk about education, we used to take pride in Nalanda University when there was not much appreciation of the importance of education in the world,” he said.

Paswan, who is into his third term as Lok Sabha MP, recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative of holding G20 meetings in different parts of the country. The G20 delegates, who took part in the Labour-20 India meeting, had visited the ruins of ancient Nalanda University and the premises of new Nalanda University.

An image of Nalanada University also formed the backdrop at the greeting area at a ceremonial dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu for G20 delegates.

Paswan said many students, teachers, owners of educational institutions in Kota are from Bihar and such a system can also be set up in various towns of the state.

“If we consider Kota, many of our students go there for education. In Kota, most of the students there are Bihari, most of those who teach are Bihari, most of the owners of educational institutions are Bihari but the system is Rajasthani. Why cannot this system be

established in Patna, Darghanga, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and other similar districts? We need to work on this,” he said.

“We need to stop migration. When our children move out of Bihar…any successful family sends their children out of Bihar to study. When they go to other states, they study there, work there, will buy their house there, marry there, have kids there and then he becomes a ‘pravasi’ for his own state and he becomes a resident of that state where he is living,” he added.

He laid stress on creating better educational centres in the state to check migration.

“To retain them (students willing to study outside Bihar) we need to create better educational hubs, whether in school or higher education,” he said.

Paswan also laid thrust on improving physical infrastructure in Bihar and said there is need to work on land reforms. He said there is need to encourage investments in the state.

The Union Minister also said there is very little infrastructure and it needs to be ramped up in the state. “We need to work on that. We need…land reforms. If you want to buy land in Bihar, it may take a lifetime and you may not succeed still. It is that difficult. We need to work on ease of business so that investors come to our state and invest.”

He highlighted the scope for religious tourism in Bihar.

“Our state is so blessed that there is endless opportunity for religious tourism. In Ayodhya, Lord Ram temple has been built and the economy of the whole area has started flourishing. Bihar is the land of Mata Sita. If a similar temple is built there, and a six-lane highway is built, people will come to have darshan of (idols of) Lord Ram and Mata Sita.”

The Hajipur MP said there are other centres in the state also which fascinate people.

“It is the land of Guru Govind Singh, Lord Mahavir, Gautam Buddha. If we develop religious tourism, it will generate revenue for our state,” Paswan said.

Speaking about the need for setting up food processing units in agri zones of the state, he said it will enhance farmers’ income.

“If you look at bananas from Hajipur, when it goes down south, it gets processed into banana chips and its value increases. If a processing unit, packaging and marketing takes place over there (Hajipur) itself, our farmers will be able to get more returns for their produce. Similarly there is litchi in Muzaffarpur, mango in Bhagalpur, makhana- there is demand for it worldwide today. If processing units are set up there, farmers will increase their income and it will enhance our state’s pride,” Paswan said.

Chirag Paswan’s father Ram Vilas Paswan was a union minister, a long-serving MP and founder of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

Chirag Paswan also spoke about his contesting against JD-U in the past and said he did not have any personal issues with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar but felt that things certain things can be done more efficiently and he has the opportunity now.

“These are some multidimensional approaches on which we need to work. Unfortunately, till now, no government has done this. When I split from the alliance with the Chief Minister, I always mentioned that I did not have any personal issues with him but I thought that we can work on some things more efficiently. Today I have the opportunity that I can talk on these things with the Chief Minister and we can execute them slowly,” the union minister said.

LJP (Ram Vilas) and JD-U are part of the ruling NDA alliance in Bihar.

On the importance of interlinking of rivers, Paswan said that the state will continue to be prone to floods as well as droughts if water is not channelised from water-surplus areas to water-deficient ones.

“We are working on the interlinking of rivers. We are demanding a special package for Bihar. I can say that in the future, half of Bihar will drown in floods and half of the state will suffer from drought. Half of the state will have so much water and half of it will have no water at all. We need to work on the interlinking of rivers. We need to channelize water from flood-prone areas to drought-prone places,” the Union Minister said.

“These are some five-six areas on which if we work, no one can stop Bihar from being the Number one state in the country,” he added.