Patna: With senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi criticising former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the alleged medicine scam case citing his proximity with a key health department official, Kumar Thursday said he was not running a marriage bureau.
"Sushilji, main koi marriage bureau to chalata nahi (Sushil Modi, I do not run a marriage bureau)," Kumar said in his comment to his former deputy in the NDA government in a Facebook post.
Kumar's jibe came in reply to Sushil Modi's query that was it not true that the sister-in-law of Sanjay Kumar was married to the maternal nephew of RCP Singh, his former Principal Secretary and now a JD(U) Rajya Sabha member.
The Facebook account has detailed reply of Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh to queries posed to him by Nitish Kumar in connection with the medicine scam along with his answer to questions raised to him by Sushil Modi.
Trashing the clean chit given by Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi to all health ministers during the NDA rule and later in the medicine scam, Sushil Modi had insisted on a CBI probe to inquire the role of Kumar in the irregularities.
The medicine scam has turned out to be a big issue following the death of a patient after being administered spurious medicine at a government hospital in Bhagalpur in March this year.
The Chief Secretary's reply to Kumar on his query to let him know the his role as minister in-charge of health in medicine purchase and supply, gave a clean chit to the former CM saying he had no role in the functioning of the State Health Society and Bihar Medical Services And Infrastructure Corporation Limited (BMSIL).
"Approval of the minister was not required for the rate at which Health society and BMSIL were purchasing medicines and medical instruments and hence approval was never sought from the minister," the CS said in his letter to Kumar.
Responding to an another question, the CS said the purchase committee and technical core committee were constituted by the order of Principal Secretary Health and the minister had no role in it and his approval was not taken.
The CS in his reply to Sushil Modi's queries, denied that Kumar was informed about the filing of a petition by one Shahnawaj Ali in the Patna High Court on the issue as the matter was taken care by other officials in the department.
