In a move to weed out corruption, the Nitish Kumar government today decided to scrap the existing allocation of funds for Local Area Development (LAD) scheme for MLAs and MLCs in Bihar, in principle.

A decision to this effect, which would help in raising a consolidated amount for a major development scheme, was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Kumar at the state secretariat in which Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi was also present, a senior official said.

Kumar had raised the issue at a meeting of the legislators belonging to NDA recently.

Briefing reporters about the decision taken at the about two-hour long meeting, state cabinet and coordination department's Principal Secretary Afzal Amanullah said the cabinet decided in principle to scrap allocation of LAD funds for MLAs and MLCs.

"The next cabinet meeting scheduled to take place on December 14 will discuss an alternative scheme", Amanullah said, adding the decision was taken in the light of charges of corruption being raised from time to time from several quarters.

Amanullah said the cabinet accepted recommendations of the Padmanabhan Committee for Bihar Judicial Service (BJS) officers on grant of benefits, allowances and other facilities.

The cabinet also appointed state ministers, who will be now the minister-in-charge cum chairman of the respective districts, with immediate effect.

According to the new notification, Deputy Chief Minister S K Modi would be minister in-charge cum Chairman of Patna district, while his senior colleague Vijay Kumar Choudhary would be the new minister in-charge for Bhojpur, Buzar.

Vijendra Yadav would be the new minister in-charge for Araria and Kishanganj and N K Yadav the new minister in-charge for Vaishali and Muzaffapur.