Centre not doing anything for poor states: Nitish

In September, the chief minister renewed his party’s attack on the Centre for not giving special status to Bihar, declaring that all backward states, including Bihar, will get special status if Opposition parties succeed in forming the next government at the Centre.

PATNA: Targeting the Central government over Bihar’s demand for special status, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said that it is not doing anything for the poor states, including Bihar and also rued that if their demands had been accepted, the state would have developed by leaps and bounds.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav distribute appointment letters to Urdu translators in Patna on Thursday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

“We didn’t get the help we should have got. We demanded special status for the state, but we didn’t get it. Had we got it, today Bihar would have marched ahead. In fact, all poor backward states should get special status. Nothing is happening anywhere, only false propaganda. But we are not going to leave it,” said Kumar while speaking at a function organised to distribute appointment letters for the post of Urdu translators and other posts.

Incidentally, this is not the first time Kumar had raised the demand after coming out of the NDA alliance in August this year. In September, he renewed his party’s attack on the Centre for not giving special status to Bihar, declaring that all backward states, including Bihar, will get special status if Opposition parties succeed in forming the next government at the Centre.

“We are trying to unite as many people (parties) as possible… If we get a chance to form the next government at the Centre, all backward states will definitely get special category status. There is no reason why it cannot be done,” Kumar told reporters after an event in Patna held to launch the installation of solar street lights in the state’s 8,061 panchayats.

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre of relying on propaganda and not working for the country’s benefit, the CM said, “What all did we got from Centre? Had we been granted the special status category; Bihar would have benefited in different sectors. Bihar would have changed… I am not talking of Bihar only; some other backward states should be granted the same status for development.”

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