PATNA: Mewalal Choudhary, Bihar’s newly appointed education minister, resigned on Thursday just three days after taking the oath amid allegations of corruption in venture capital appointments at Bihar Agricultural University.
Opposition parties led by Texas RJD Prasad Yadav raised questions about Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s zero tolerance policy on corruption, citing pending cases against Mewalal.
Governor Phagu Chauhan accepted his resignation with immediate effect and the minister of the state building construction department, Ashok
Choudhary was assigned an additional position from the education department.
Mewalal arrived at the new secretariat around 12:30 pm on Thursday and took over as Minister of Education. Shortly after taking office, he spoke to the media and began his first interaction meeting with senior department officials.
Meanwhile, the minister received a call from the prime minister’s office. The minister was asked to run to CM’s house and meet Nitish Kumar. Within half an hour, we received information that the minister had been asked to resign, ”an education official told TOI on Thursday.
With this, Mewalal created something of a record for being the “shortest serving minister”, as he remained as Minister of Education for less than two hours after taking office.
Speaking about the corruption allegations brought against him shortly after taking office as minister, Mewalal said: “An accusation is proven only when a charge sheet is filed or a court gives an order and neither of us is there to prove the accusations against me. ”
In reaction to Mewalal’s resignation on Thursday, Tejashwi accused the CM of appointing a corrupt person as minister. “You made a corrupt person a minister. Despite the public outrage, you allowed him to take office as minister, and now a ‘nautanki (popular drama)’ is enacted after a few hours, ”Tejashwi said in a tweet written in Hindi.
Blaming the CM for everything that happened with the education minister, Tejashwi further said: “The responsibility lies with you. Why did you appoint him minister? Entry to the double standard or the ‘nautanki’ will not be allowed ”.
Tejashwi and some other opposition leaders previously noted that the two JD (U) MLA terms of Tarapur, Mewalal is a defendant in a surveillance case brought against him for “committing irregularities in the recruitment of assistant professors and young scientists in Bihar Agricultural University (BAU) during his tenure as vice-rector of the institution from 2010 to 2015.
Before being elected as an MLA for the first time in November 2015, Mewalal was vice chancellor of the BAU, Sabour.
Said case is pending in ADJ-I court in Bhagalpur district and is being investigated by the Surveillance Investigation Bureau (VIB), according to Choudhary’s affidavit available on the Election Commission website. However, VIB has yet to file a charge sheet against Mewalal in the case.
Sources said VIB had registered its own case against the former vice chancellor and several other BAU officials after a preliminary investigation.
Mewalal, was previously suspended from the JD (U) after the BAU Registrar filed an FIR against him at Sabour Police Station in Bhagalpur on February 21, 2017.
An inquiry committee of a member of justice (retired) Syed Mohammad Mahfooz Alam of the Patna High Court, created by the then Governor and Chancellor of Universities Ram Nath Kovind (who is now the President of India) had indicted Mewalal of committing botch, favoritism, interpolations, manipulations, additions and subtractions on a large scale in academic points of the candidates, modifying the comments and violating the provisions of the statute in the selection of junior assistant-scientific professors.
It was on the basis of this report that the university registrar filed the FIR against Mewalal. However, the Patna High Court granted Mewalal an advance bond on August 22, 2017 because the investigation report did not contain any material to substantiate the charge that the former CV had designated his relatives or relatives.
Opposition parties led by Texas RJD Prasad Yadav raised questions about Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s zero tolerance policy on corruption, citing pending cases against Mewalal.
Governor Phagu Chauhan accepted his resignation with immediate effect and the minister of the state building construction department, Ashok
Choudhary was assigned an additional position from the education department.
Mewalal arrived at the new secretariat around 12:30 pm on Thursday and took over as Minister of Education. Shortly after taking office, he spoke to the media and began his first interaction meeting with senior department officials.
Meanwhile, the minister received a call from the prime minister’s office. The minister was asked to run to CM’s house and meet Nitish Kumar. Within half an hour, we received information that the minister had been asked to resign, ”an education official told TOI on Thursday.
With this, Mewalal created something of a record for being the “shortest serving minister”, as he remained as Minister of Education for less than two hours after taking office.
Speaking about the corruption allegations brought against him shortly after taking office as minister, Mewalal said: “An accusation is proven only when a charge sheet is filed or a court gives an order and neither of us is there to prove the accusations against me. ”
In reaction to Mewalal’s resignation on Thursday, Tejashwi accused the CM of appointing a corrupt person as minister. “You made a corrupt person a minister. Despite the public outrage, you allowed him to take office as minister, and now a ‘nautanki (popular drama)’ is enacted after a few hours, ”Tejashwi said in a tweet written in Hindi.
Blaming the CM for everything that happened with the education minister, Tejashwi further said: “The responsibility lies with you. Why did you appoint him minister? Entry to the double standard or the ‘nautanki’ will not be allowed ”.
Tejashwi and some other opposition leaders previously noted that the two JD (U) MLA terms of Tarapur, Mewalal is a defendant in a surveillance case brought against him for “committing irregularities in the recruitment of assistant professors and young scientists in Bihar Agricultural University (BAU) during his tenure as vice-rector of the institution from 2010 to 2015.
Before being elected as an MLA for the first time in November 2015, Mewalal was vice chancellor of the BAU, Sabour.
Said case is pending in ADJ-I court in Bhagalpur district and is being investigated by the Surveillance Investigation Bureau (VIB), according to Choudhary’s affidavit available on the Election Commission website. However, VIB has yet to file a charge sheet against Mewalal in the case.
Sources said VIB had registered its own case against the former vice chancellor and several other BAU officials after a preliminary investigation.
Mewalal, was previously suspended from the JD (U) after the BAU Registrar filed an FIR against him at Sabour Police Station in Bhagalpur on February 21, 2017.
An inquiry committee of a member of justice (retired) Syed Mohammad Mahfooz Alam of the Patna High Court, created by the then Governor and Chancellor of Universities Ram Nath Kovind (who is now the President of India) had indicted Mewalal of committing botch, favoritism, interpolations, manipulations, additions and subtractions on a large scale in academic points of the candidates, modifying the comments and violating the provisions of the statute in the selection of junior assistant-scientific professors.
It was on the basis of this report that the university registrar filed the FIR against Mewalal. However, the Patna High Court granted Mewalal an advance bond on August 22, 2017 because the investigation report did not contain any material to substantiate the charge that the former CV had designated his relatives or relatives.
.
