Patna: The Bihar government on Monday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that the state gets a good share of investments brought by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is arriving in India tomorrow.
"The Chinese President is coming to India. We request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that a good share of investments brought by him comes to Bihar. There is a need for decentralisation of investment in the country," said Bihar Industries Minister Bhim Singh.
"The thrust area for Chinese investment is infrastructure development, power, urban development, and food processing.Bihar needs all four. The state will benefit if we get a good share of Chinese investment," Singh added.
Singh, who returned from a five-day tour to China, was speaking to mediapersons today. He had led a delegation of officials to participate in 'International Fair for Investment and Trade' (CIFIT) at Xiamen, a major city on the southeast coast of China.
Reacting to questions on recent border skirmishes with China in Ladakh, the minister played it down by saying, "Invasion is a different matter from trade. We should not mix them up. It is for the Union Government to look into the matter of Chinese aggression."
Accusing Manjhi of shielding his predecessor for his alleged involvement in the said scam, the senior BJP leader urged him to order a CBI probe in the matter as being demanded by his party colleagues and former health ministers - Nandkishore Yadav and Ashwani Chaube.
Modi also demanded Rs ten lakh compensation to a patient at a government hospital in Bhagalpur who had died because of administration of an alleged sub-standard anaesthetic drug supplied by the state agency - Bihar Medical Services and Infrastructure Corporation Limited (BMSICL) as has been found during probe by a two-member committee comprising PMCH's anaesthesia department head Dr Ashok Singh and health department official Dr Madhurendra.
He alleged that nine suppliers blacklisted in states like Kerala, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu were supplying medicines to Bihar even today and demanded a ban on such agencies with immediate effect.
On the ongoing letter war between him and his erstwhile boss Nitish Kumar, Modi said that he had raised pointed issues for clarification, but he was still to respond to all these charges. He said that by virtue of being the ex-officio chairman of the Bihar State Health Society, the former chief minister must own up responsibility for the alleged medicine purchase scam, which took place when he held the health portfolio.
Modi further said that the alleged medicine purchase scam which was assessed to be worth Rs 16 crore earlier, could reach upto and even more than Rs 100 crore once the probe by an impartial agency got into the bottom of the things.
