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 Maharashtra5218
4245
722
251
Gujarat2178
1949
139
90
Delhi2156
1498
611
47
Rajasthan1659
1404
230
25
Tamil Nadu1596
943
635
18
Madhya Pradesh1552
1328
148
76
Uttar Pradesh1294
1134
140
20
Telangana928
711
194
23
Andhra Pradesh757
639
96
22
Kerala427
117
307
3
West Bengal423
335
73
15
Karnataka418
272
129
17
Jammu And Kashmir380
294
81
5
Haryana254
124
127
3
Punjab245
190
39
16
Bihar126
82
42
2
Odisha79
54
24
1
Uttarakhand46
27
19
0
Jharkhand45
42
0
3
Himachal Pradesh39
22
16
1
Chhattisgarh36
10
26
0
Assam35
15
19
1
Chandigarh27
13
14
0
Ladakh18
4
14
0
Andaman And Nicobar Islands16
5
11
0
Meghalaya12
11
0
1
Goa7
0
7
0
Puducherry7
4
3
0
Manipur2
0
2
0
Tripura2
1
1
0
Mizoram1
1
0
0
Arunachal Pradesh1
0
1
0
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