Bihar government's tendency to sit on probe reports deplored

PATNA: Deploring the JD(U) government's wilful "tendency" to sit on the probe reports about major incidents, ex-deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi today demanded that all such reports be made public.

This include the Gandhi Maidan stampede incident during Dusshera festival earlier this month in which 33 people died, while 28 others sustained injuries, Modi said.

"It has been noted that the state government orders probe into major incidents and then wilfully tries to hush up the matter by not making public the inquiry reports," he said in a statement.

A number of incidents, like Forbesganj police firing in 2011, stampede during Chhath festival at Adalat Ghat in the state capital in 2012, purification of a temple in Madhubani district after the Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's visit, stampede at Gandhi Maidan during Dusshera festival and medicine purchase scam have rocked Bihar in the past two years prompting the state government to set up probe panel, Modi said, and rued that the inquiry report in none of these incidents have been made public as yet.

"It's high time that the state government gets out of a wilful tendency to hush up all these incidents and spare the guilty officials of penal action," the senior BJP leader said and demanded that the inquiry reports in all such incidents must be made public immediately and cases lodged against errant officials who have been named in the probe reports.