Bihar DyCM accuses Gehlot govt of holding Kota students ransom; dares RJD 'snap Cong ties'

Lashing out at the Congress government in Rajasthan, Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi has alleged that they did not allow buses ferrying stranded Kota students to move till the state government gave Rs 1 crore for the same. Taking to Twitter, he said that the Ashok Gehlot government and Lalu Prasad Yadav-led RJD are pretending to send buses to ferry stranded people, but in reality, Rajasthan government demanded one crore for ferrying 18,000 stranded students from Kota. He also dared the RJD to break its alliance with the Congress if it cares about the pain of the Bihari people. 

The state is scheduled to go on polls in the upcoming October-November, even as the Coronavirus pandemic casts uncertainty over the election process. Speaking to Republic TV, the Deputy CM had expressed his apprehension about the method of the electoral process. He had said that holding election rallies will become a thing of the past and the politicians will not be able to use choppers for addressing election rallies. Instead, Bihar should gear up for digital campaigning and electronic voting, he had added. 

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Meanwhile, the Bihar government has given a green signal to the Maharashtra government to send as many trains as required to ferry the migrants. Bihar Chief Secretary Deepak Kumar on Tuesday stated that Maharashtra has informed Bihar of sending 24 trains. 

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Covid tally in Bihar

On Tuesday, the death toll in the state rose to 15 and the total number of positive cases rose to 2,968 with 231 cases being reported during the day. Altogether 800 people have recovered after having tested positive, the number of fresh cases continued to rise rapidly in the state, which has been attributed largely to the massive influx of migrants from other parts of the country since the beginning of this month.

Patna district, the worst affected in the state, reported six fresh cases which caused its tally to reach 217. Among those testing positive, four were personnel of the Bihar Military Police. The second-worst affected district, Rohtas, was rocked by an explosion of 35 fresh cases which caused its tally to breach the 200-mark. Those testing positive in the district, which has reported a total of 201 cases, included four children under five years of age, the youngest being a one-year-old boy, according to figures made available by the health department. A boy and a girl, both a year-old, were among 31 people testing positive in the remote north Bihar district of Madhubani, which now ranks third with 176 cases.

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Significant numbers of cases were also reported from districts like Darbhanga, Banka, Sheikhpura and Kishanganj. In addition to the three worst-affected districts, Begusarai, Munger, Khagaria, Katihar, Buxar and Jehanabad have tallies in three digits. None of the 38 districts in the state has a tally below 10. The districts reporting casualties -- other than the two latest ones -- are Patna, Vaishali and Khagaria (two each) and Rohtas, East Champaran, Munger, Sitamarhi, Saran and Siwan (one each).

According to Anupam Kumar, Secretary for Information and Public Relations Department, 15.41 lakh migrant workers have come back to Bihar during the lockdown by 1,026 Shramik Specials so far and another 5.29 lakh are scheduled to arrive soon in 321 special trains. 

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