Cabinet okays Nitish's decision to scrap LAD for legislators

PATNA: The Nitish Kumar-led NDA government seems to be in a hurry to help force the pace of development story, something which it may feel is necessary to match the high expectations of the people of Bihar. The state Cabinet on Tuesday approved a slew of proposals besides setting the agenda for ensuring speedy development.

As expected, the Cabinet formally approved the proposal to abolish the Local Area Development ( LAD) fund meant for the legislators, a decision which other states may emulate. “Some alternative arrangement will we worked out which will enable the legislators to have a say in the approval of the schemes,” the Principal Secretary, Cabinet Coordination department Afzal Amanullah said.

All along the Nitish government in its previous tenure harped on the credo of good governance and in keeping with what it promised earlier, the Cabinet formally approved a detailed agenda for good governance.

“The core issues of good governance and what the government proposed to do in this connection have now been spelt out in the 17-page document which was placed before the Cabinet meeting,” the principal secretary said, adding there will be zero tolerance on corruption “Already armed with stringent laws, the government will now bring a legislation –Right to Service Bill – to weed out corruption in the delivery of the public utility service,” he said.

Among other proposals okayed by the Cabinet, the government will set up a commission for the upper castes, extremely backward caste development and finance corporation.

The government will provide special coaching classes for the EBC, minority, SC and ST students, set up women police stations in all districts , link all the villages and tolas with the main road by 2015 besides expand the ongoing “Apki Sarkar, Apki Dwar“ for combating the Naxal menace.

The Cabinet also endorsed the agreement of the state government and World Bank, which has agreed to a loan of Rs 1000 crore for the rehabilitation of the Kosi region.