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Bihar Dustbin Scam: Amidst claims of good governance in Bihar, a big controversy has arisen regarding the purchase of dustbins and polythene sheets in the health department. On the basis of information revealed under Right to Information i.e. RTI, the opposition has accused the government of a huge scam of Rs 306 crore. The opposition says that the dustbin which is available in the open market for around Rs 1500, was purchased for hospitals at a huge price of Rs 15000. After this revelation, the political temperature of the state has completely increased.

Shocking figures revealed through RTI

The entire matter is said to be to the purchases made for government hospitals during the tenure of former Health Minister Mangal Pandey. Citing RTI documents, it is being alleged that rules were ignored in the purchase of plastic dustbins and polythene sheets for hospitals. A huge loss was caused to the government exchequer by paying almost ten times more than the market price. Overall, serious allegations have been made of embezzlement of the government budget of about Rs 306 crore.

Opposition directly targeted the government

On this issue, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav and other party leaders have started siege of Nitish government. Rohini Acharya also took a dig at this purchase and said that now even the dustbin has become a VVIP in Bihar. The opposition clearly says that when tax money is collected from the hard-earned money of the common people, its misuse will not be tolerated at all. Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Bihar Assembly and RJD MLA Bhai Virendra has said that he will raise this matter strongly on the table of the House. He has demanded that this entire game of buying a dustbin worth Rs 1500 for Rs 15000 should be impartially investigated and those who loot public money should be given strict punishment.

Ruling party's clarification and counterattack

On the other hand, reactions are also coming from the government and ruling party leaders on this matter. Government ministers argue that the quality, thickness and weight of every plastic item is different. The price of any item depends on its quality. The ruling party says that right now this is just an allegation made by the opposition, no scam has been proved. Whereas the leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party termed these attacks of the opposition as baseless and said that the government in the state is working with full transparency and dedication. The leaders claim that if there has been any irregularity at any level, it will be investigated, because in the present system no person involved in corruption can escape.

Need for investigation and accountability

Questions have been raised earlier also regarding the infrastructure of health facilities and hospitals in Bihar. In such a situation, when there is a huge difference in the purchases worth crores of rupees in the name of cleanliness and waste management, it is natural to raise questions on administrative transparency. Even the common people are not able to understand the mathematics of purchasing an item worth Rs 1500 for Rs 15000. Now it remains to be seen whether the government constitutes a high-level inquiry committee on these serious allegations or whether this issue remains limited only to statements and political allegations and counter-allegations.