After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has accused the Nitish Kumar government of not properly utilising Central funds.

“The Centre has provided crores and crores of rupees to the state under various centrally-sponsored schemes… but it is unfortunate that there are reports of corruption,” Gandhi told an election rally in Kishanganj on Monday.

Criticising the development claim of Nitish Kumar, she said, “We don’t know what happened to the funds the Centre provided to the state” and asked the people as to how many hours they received electricity and what happened to the money earmarked for education and health sectors.

“Students have to go outside the state for better education, opportunity and also for ensuring treatment of diseases,” she said.

Gandhi accused Nitish Kumar of being hand-in-glove with those who were “dead against” secularism.

Those who are in power here are in “hand in glove with those dead against secularism”, she said addressing an election rally in the minority-dominated Kishanganj area of the state.

Seeking to puncture the Nitish Kumar government’s development plank, Gandhi attacked the government for not giving land for establishment of a centre of Aligarh Muslim University in Kishanganj despite all clearances from the Centre.

“You have talked about Aligarh Muslim University. Everything is clear from the Centre but the government here is not giving land. It has not given the land so far,” she said.

Claiming that only Congress can bring Bihar back to the path of development by providing a secular government, she regretted that the last twenty years saw several parties coming to power, which had “no vision for development”.

She urged people to vote for Congress and “bring a revolution of development” in the state.