Mandaviya meets Nitish, winds up two-day Bihar tour

Mandaviyas cabinet colleague and Begusarai MP Giriraj Singh was also present at the party meeting.Mandaviyas Bihar tour had begun on Saturday afternoon with the inauguration of a laboratory inside the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Education Research at Hajipur, the headquarters of Vaishali district.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday called on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at his official residence here.

The courtesy call took place on the second and final day of the Union minister's tour of the state as part of which he also visited Vaishali, Begusarai and East Champaran districts.

Before meeting the chief minister, whose JD(U) is the largest ally of the BJP, Mandaviya inaugurated a state-of-the-art auditorium at AIIMS, Patna, besides laying foundation stones for a number of projects.

Speaking on the occasion, he underscored that work on AIIMS, Patna ''began during the tenure of late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the hospital became functional when Narendra Modi came to power''.

He noted that a large number of patients from the state were now spared of the need to rush to the national capital with the establishment of AIIMS here.

Earlier, he dedicated to the nation an FSSAI-certified National Food Laboratory in Ruxaul, East Champaran, where he also gave away insurance cards to a number of Ayushman Bharat applicants.

He was accompanied by state Health Minister Mangal Pandey, who is also a senior BJP leader, besides local MP and current president of the party's state unit Sanjay Jaiswal.

His visit to East Champaran was preceded by a sapling plantation ceremony at Barauni in Begusarai district to mark World Environment Day. The Union minister had spent the night in Begusarai where he had interacted with BJP workers on Saturday evening. Mandaviya's cabinet colleague and Begusarai MP Giriraj Singh was also present at the party meeting.

Mandaviya's Bihar tour had begun on Saturday afternoon with the inauguration of a laboratory inside the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Education Research at Hajipur, the headquarters of Vaishali district. State Industries Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain was among those present.