Bihar Officer Suspended For "VIP Pass" That Embarrassed Nitish Kumar

After a Bihar BJP MLA was given a special travel pass to bring his daughter from Rajasthan's Kota, which left Chief Minister Nitish Kumar facing embarrassing questions from rivals, an officer has been suspended. Powers to decide on such passes will now be with the district magistrate.

Annu Kumar, Sub Divisional Officer of Sadar, Nawada district was suspended in an order last evening by the Bihar administration. He faces disciplinary action for issuing the pass to BJP legislator Anil Singh on April 15.

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", said the order.

Anil Singh left for Rajasthan a day after getting the pass and brought back his 17-year-old daughter, who is studying in Kota for medical entrance exams. The MLA had claimed that she had lapsed into depression and had been alone since the country went into lockdown to fight coronavirus and all travel and classes were suspended.

Nitish Kumar faced much flak over the special pass for a BJP MLA after he objected strongly to states sending buses to Kota to bring back stranded students. The Chief Minister, who had called the move "injustice to the lockdown", was accused of hypocrisy when it came to making exceptions for his own ally. 

Mr Singh is the BJP chief whip in the state assembly and travels in a government vehicle. His driver was issued show-cause notice for taking the Scorpio SUV out of the state without approval.

The legislator claimed he never used the government car but his private Fortuner car, though he had obtained passes for both vehicles "by way of abundant caution".