Lalu, Rabri not to have tarmac access in Patna
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi, both former Bihar chief ministers, will have to go through strict security checks as regular passengers at Patna airport after the Union civil aviation ministry withdrew a facility which gave them direct access to the tarmac in their vehicles.
The order, issued by the ministry on Friday, angered RJD leaders who said this was being done “to harass Lalu Yadav who has played a vital role in uniting Opposition parties against the BJP”.
BJP leaders have welcomed the move.
The ministry in its order dated July 21 said, “It has now been decided that the permission accorded to Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ms Rabri Devi... Vide the order dated August 1, 2009, may be withdrawn henceforth.”
“The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) is, accordingly, requested to take immediate action to issue necessary instructions in this regard to all concerned so as to ensure implementation of the aforesaid decision of this ministry,” it said.
The facility of direct access to the tarmac, bypassing security checks, was granted to the couple by the UPA government in 2009.
Sources said the withdrawal of the facility could spark a fresh round
of tussle between the RJD and the BJP. Lalu Yadav had earlier accused the BJP-led NDA government of unleashing prosecuting agencies on him and his family members to implicate them in allegedly false corruption cases.
Bihar BJP spokesperson Vinod Narayan Jha said, “None of the other former chief ministers, including Jitan Ram Manjhi and Jagannath Mishra, have been given the privilege. The decision, I am sure, has been taken after assessing details of their security.”
Lalu Yadav was disqualified as Lok Sabha MP in October 2013, after he was convicted in a fodder scam case and sentenced to five years imprisonment. He is currently out on bail but has to appear before a court in Ranchi (Jharkhand) hearing another case related to the scam.
The RJD is the largest party in the grand secular alliance government in Bihar headed by CM Nitish Kumar, who is under pressure to remove his two sons — Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap — from the Cabinet after their names surfaced in graft cases and a series of benami land deals.