UNION Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday warned that Bihar’s areas close to the borders (seemant) will become “infested with infiltrators” if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not voted back to power. Shah, widely regarded as the BJP’s “principal strategist”, made the remark at a rally in Jhanjharpur parliamentary constituency, situated close to Nepal and Bangladesh. The Home Minister, who spoke for close to 30 minutes, charged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad of pursuing “appeasement politics” through measures like cuts in holidays of Government schools. “I would like to congratulate the people of Bihar for putting up a resistance that forced the State Government to withdraw its order whereby holidays on Rakshabandhan, the festival of brothers and sisters, and Janmashtami, devoted to Lord Krishna, were done away with,” said Shah.

 

The allusion was to the recent protests by teachers across the state which led the education department to withdraw the new calendar which was brought in with the aim of ensuring that classes were held for the requisite number of days in a year. Continuing with the tirade against “tushtikaran” (appeasement), the Home Minister slammed the Congress, a partner in the State’s ruling alliance, for dragging its feet on Ram temple at Ayodhya and Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

 

Showering praises on PM Modi for abrogation of Article 370 and making possible the construction of the temple “by January next year”, the Home Minister, however, struck an al 10 Land Customs Stations to come up in Bihar along Indo-Nepal border: Shah: UNION Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday announced that the Central Government has identified 10 places to establish Land Customs Stations (LCS) in Bihar along the international border to improve bilateral trade between India and Nepal. An LCS is a facility providing transit, customs, immigration and cargo handling services for goods and passengers travelling between two neighbouring countries. “The Centre is in the process of establishing a total of 19 Land Customs Stations along the Indo-Nepal border to improve the bilateral trade between India and Nepal. Out of the 19, ten will be established in Bihar,” Shah said. The 10 Land Customs stations will be set up at Galgalia (Kishanganj district), Bairgania (Sitamarhi), Bhimnagar and Kunauli (Supaul), Jainagar (Madhubani) Valmiki Nagar (West Champaran) and several other places.