Title - Nitish Kumar raps railway for delay in completion of rail bridges

Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday alleged that the Railway Ministry was causing inordinate delay in the construction of rail bridges in Bihar which were sanctioned during the NDA regime."There has been inordinate delay in construction of the rail bridges in Bihar which were sanctioned during the NDA rule," Kumar, a former Railway minister himself, said while referring to under-construction rail bridges at Mokama and Bakhtiyarpur on the river Ganga.The state government has sanctioned its share of the cost of the bridges, but the Railways was not coming forth with its share, he said, and expressed wonder about the whereabouts of the profits he had left behind as railway minister."Where have all the profits of the Railways gone," he asked at a function to mark the foundation day of the Bihar State Bridge Construction Corporation (BSBCC).He criticised the Centre for ignoring the dilapidated condition of the Mahatma Gandhi bridge on the river Ganga which connects the southern and northern districts of Bihar.He said the Centre rejected various proposals submitted by the state government for repair of the bridge. Referring to the violence and arson by the Ranvir Sena activists in the wake of the murder of the Sena chief Brahmeshwar Singh in Bhojpur district on June 1, the chief minister disapproved of the unlawful actions taken by some people to create fissures in the society."I have tried my best to bridge the socio-economic divide among the people and it will not be fair on the part of some people to create obstacles in this endeavour to maintain social amity and communal harmony," Kumar said.