‘Jail or hell’: Congress vows crackdown on mafias if INDIA bloc wins Bihar polls

Patna, Oct 10 (PTI) The Congress on Friday said if the opposition INDIA bloc wins the Bihar polls, "syndicate crime groups and mafias would be either in jail or in hell".

Addressing a press conference as part of the party’s '20 Saal, 20 Sawal' campaign, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh said there are 12 kinds of organised crime groups operating in the state.

"These include the microfinance, sand, liquor, tender, recruitment, education, mining, supari, adulteration and transfer-posting mafia," he said.

"If INDIA bloc government is formed, we will have zero tolerance towards these syndicate crime groups," Singh asserted.

He said 1.09 crore women in the state are "caught in the grip of microfinance debt", with an average liability of Rs 30,000.

The MP asserted that if the coalition forms the comes to power, it will maintain a strict vigil, and conduct raids on "illegal supply of liquor." Singh alleged that sand mafias are active in riverine areas along the Ganga, Sone, Koshi, and Gandak rivers and assured that they would be dealt with firmly.

He added that the Congress was committed to tackling issues such as recruitment scams, paper leaks, food adulteration, and fraudulent tender practices. PTI SUK MNB