The Sub Divisional Officer of Sadar, Nawada district, was suspended after he gave a special travel pass to Bihar BJP MLA to bring his daughter from Rajasthan’s Kota, leaving Chief Minister Nitish Kumar embarrassed before rivals.
The Bihar administration has suspended SDO Annu Kumar and has now restricted the power to decide on such passes only with the district magistrate. Kumar now faces disciplinary action for issuing the pass on April 15 to BJP legislator Anil Singh.
‘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,’ NDTV quoted the order as saying.
A day after getting the pass, Singh travelled to Kota in Rajasthan and brought back his daughter, 17, who is studying there for medical entrance exams. The MLA claimed that her daughter had lapsed into depression from staying alone throughout the lockdown.
Nitish Kumar had earlier strongly objected to states sending buses to Kota to bring back stranded students. After this incident, he was slammed for making an exception for his ally. His move was called ‘injustice to the lockdown’.
Singh, who is the BJP chief whip in the state assembly, travelled in a government vehicle, and his driver was consequently issued a show-cause notice for driving the Scorpio SUV out of the state without approval.
The legislator, however, claimed that he had only used his private Fortuner car and not the government vehicle, though he had obtained passes for both vehicles ‘by way of abundant caution’.
