Bihar Officer Suspended For "VIP Pass" That Embarrassed Nitish Kumar

Bihar Officer Suspended For "VIP Pass" That Embarrassed Nitish Kumar
Patna:

After a Bihar BJP MLA was given a special travel pass to bring his daughter from Rajasthan's Kota, which left Chief Minister Nitish Kumar facing embarrassing questions from rivals, an officer has been suspended. Powers to decide on such passes will now be with the district magistrate.

Annu Kumar, Sub Divisional Officer of Sadar, Nawada district was suspended in an order last evening by the Bihar administration. He faces disciplinary action for issuing the pass to BJP legislator Anil Singh on April 15.

Mr Kumar was "guilty of negligence in issuing the pass facilitating inter-state travel, which must not have been issued except in extraordinary circumstances during the lockdown period", said the order.

Anil Singh left for Rajasthan a day after getting the pass and brought back his 17-year-old daughter, who is studying in Kota for medical entrance exams. The MLA had claimed that she had lapsed into depression and had been alone since the country went into lockdown to fight coronavirus and all travel and classes were suspended.

Nitish Kumar faced much flak over the special pass for a BJP MLA after he objected strongly to states sending buses to Kota to bring back stranded students. The Chief Minister, who had called the move "injustice to the lockdown", was accused of hypocrisy when it came to making exceptions for his own ally. 

Mr Singh is the BJP chief whip in the state assembly and travels in a government vehicle. His driver was issued show-cause notice for taking the Scorpio SUV out of the state without approval.

The legislator claimed he never used the government car but his private Fortuner car, though he had obtained passes for both vehicles "by way of abundant caution".

World

Coronavirus has spread to 185 countries. The total confirmed cases worldwide are 25,63,480 and 1,77,420 have died; 17,04,478 are active cases and 6,81,582 have recovered as on April 22, 2020 at 7:56 am.

India

In India, there are 19,984 confirmed cases including 640 deaths. The number of active cases is 15,474 and 3,870 have recovered as on April 22, 2020 at 8:00 am.

State & District Details

State Cases Active Recovered Deaths Maharashtra

5218

4245

722

251

Gujarat

2178

1949

139

90

Delhi

2156

1498

611

47

Rajasthan

1659

1404

230

25

Tamil Nadu

1596

943

635

18

Madhya Pradesh

1552

1328

148

76

Uttar Pradesh

1294

1134

140

20

Telangana

928

711

194

23

Andhra Pradesh

757

639

96

22

Kerala

427

117

307

3

West Bengal

423

335

73

15

Karnataka

418

272

129

17

Jammu And Kashmir

380

294

81

5

Haryana

254

124

127

3

Punjab

245

190

39

16

Bihar

126

82

42

2

Odisha

79

54

24

1

Uttarakhand

46

27

19

0

Jharkhand

45

42

0

3

Himachal Pradesh

39

22

16

1

Chhattisgarh

36

10

26

0

Assam

35

15

19

1

Chandigarh

27

13

14

0

Ladakh

18

4

14

0

Andaman And Nicobar Islands

16

5

11

0

Meghalaya

12

11

0

1

Goa

7

0

7

0

Puducherry

7

4

3

0

Manipur

2

0

2

0

Tripura

2

1

1

0

Mizoram

1

1

0

0

Arunachal Pradesh

1

0

1

0

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