'Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir is integral part of India', says Nitish Kumar on Farooq Abdullah's comment

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday made it clear that the guilty will not be spared in the recently unearthed multi-crore scam in construction of toilets in the state.

“The guilty will not be spared. Strict action will be taken against all those who are found guilty of having embezzled public money. This has been our policy”, Mr. Kumar told reporters here on the sidelines of his weekly Lok Samvad programme.

Mr. Kumar was responding to queries about the scam, wherein crores of rupees were fraudulently transferred into the accounts of NGOs. A number of persons have been arrested in connection with the alleged irregularities so far.

The Chief Minister also said “we have always been very cautious about claims made with regard to sanitation.

Recently, a proposal had come from Sasaram to declare the district ODF (open defecation free). But we decided to first verify the claim through a third-party, independent agency”.

‘Kashmir is an integral part of India’

On a question related to Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Kumar asserted “the whole of Kashmir,including those areas which are occupied by Pakistan” was an integral part of India.

“We have always held that Kashmir is an integral part of India. This has been our unequivocal stand on the issue. We hold that the whole of Kashmir, including those areas which are occupied by Pakistan, are an integral part of the country”, he told reporters.

Mr. Kumar was responding to a query on the statement by National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah that Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) belonged to Pakistan.