Patna, March 26: Bihar today made a presentation before the inter-ministerial group to plead its case for being accorded special status.

Led by chief secretary Navin Kumar, the team comprising principal secretaries of planning and development and finance departments as well as two other senior officials made a detailed presentation before the group at Delhi in a meeting that lasted for more than two hours.

The Centre constituted the group, headed by Planning Commission member-secretary Sudha Pillai and secretary (expenditure), ministry of finance, Sumit Bose as member-secretary, in September last year to look into the states’ demand for being accorded special status. This was the first time that the group invited Bihar officials to present the state’s case.

One of the senior Bihar government officials, who took part in the meeting, told The Telegraph over phone from Delhi: “A 13-page document, enlisting over two dozen points in support of the state’s demand for special status, was submitted to the group.”

He said the documents gave details of how the gap between the national per capita income and that of the state kept on rising ever since planning process began in India.

The state team also told the group how Bihar was deprived of about Rs 5,77,000-crore plan outlay since the beginning owing to low outlay for the state in comparison to the national average.

“The group has sought some more details that we would provide within two days so that it could submit its report before the end of this fiscal,” said the official.