Bihar Oppn leader demands blood test of legislators

Patna, Dec 19 (IANS) Vijay Kumar Sinha, the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, has demanded blood tests of every legislator in the state to find out who consumes liquor.

Sinha's demand comes as the Nitish Kumar government has refused to give compensation to family members of those who died in the Saran hooch tragedy.

"We demand from the state government to conduct blood tests of every legislator at the gate of Vidhan Sabha. It will give an idea about how many leaders who are surrounding Nitish Kumar used to drink liquor," the opposition leader said.

"After the Saran hooch tragedy, the ugly face of the Nitish Kumar government appeared before the people of Bihar. As per the provision, the state government has to give compensation to the family members of the deceased. Instead of doing this, the current grand alliance government is not even expressing condolences."

Sinha went on to say that the state government had provided compensation during the 2016 Khajoorbanni liquor tragedy in Gopalganj.

"On that occasion, the government had given Rs 4 lakh cash as compensation. If it gave compensation then, why not now?" he queried.

Sinha also claimed that compensations were being given out for victims of nike accidents, whether bikers wear helmets or not.

"In the Saran, what is the fault of family members of the deceased? All the deceased are poor, Dalit and daily earners. If the Nitish Kumar government becomes insensitive, how could they survive?"

He also alleged that the death toll in the Saran tragedy is much higher that the figure released by the state government.

"The local authority has put pressure on the family members and cremated the bodies without a post-mortem."

The tragedy occurred on December 12 and 57 persons have died after consuming the spurious liquor so far.