The RJD termed the proposal to name residential colonies for the homeless after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar "unethical".

RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwary said that while the scheme per se was "laudable", the state government should consider naming it after legendary figures of the past like former deputy PM Jagjivan Ram.

"To name a scheme that uses public funds after a living person, that too the prime minister and the chief minister, would be unethical ('anaitik')," said Tiwary, a former Rajya Sabha MP, in a statement on Friday.

He was reacting to reports about the proposed scheme, which BJP leader and state Minister for Revenue and Land Reforms Ram Surat Rai has claimed to be his brainchild.

Rai said he would name these colonies 'Modi Nagar' and 'Nitish Nagar' after "our revered leaders".

He also said that he saw "no need for seeking any approval" for the exercise.

Tiwary, who is a former minister himself, said, "... It should be named after any luminary from our state with an underprivileged background."

Besides Ram, the other names suggested by Tiwary were former CM Bhola Paswan Shastri, Dalit poet Heera Dom and Dashrath Manjhi, whose feat of carving out a road by chiseling a hill for years earned him the sobriquet 'mountain man''.