Accusing the Rashtriya Janata Dal government of not spending funds earmarked for development projects, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Wednesday said a multi-pronged effort was being made to address the problems in Bihar.
"The state government needs to gear up its machinery for timely completion of projects so that the funds allocated to the state under various schemes are utilised and the intended benefits flow to the people, the ultimate beneficiaries," he told the Lok Sabha.
Unhappy with the prime minister's statement, RJD members trooped to the well of the House but were persuaded by Speaker Manohar Joshi to go back to their seats after a few minutes. RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh also clashed with BJP members calling them 'enemies of Bihar'.
Vajpayee made the statement because members from Bihar were unwilling to accept Minister of State for Planning S B Mukherjee's reply to a calling attention motion last week on a financial package to Bihar. They members were pacified only after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj promised to request the prime minister to make a statement.
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