Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday welcomed the 2011 population criteria by the 15th Finance Commission for distribution of resources.

He raised what he called "some important issues", despite Bihar having already sent its preliminary suggestions a couple of months ago.

With the statements, Nitish has taken a lead among the backward states in the face of the opposition by the south Indian states to the 2011 census criteria fixed by the latest Finance Commission headed by former JDU MP N.K. Singh.

Previous commissions had given more weight to the 1971 census data, which were not reflective of the high population of several states after a growth over decades.

The prosperous southern states are demanding that the 15th Finance Commission should keep 1971 as the base year for census data because their population has reached replacement levels. Any change to 2011 will benefit states like Bihar, UP and Bengal more because they still have a growing population.

Nitish, allaying the fears of the southern states, said: "The terms of reference recognises the efforts of states in population control by specifically including that the 15th Finance Commission will consider efforts and progress made in moving towards replacement rate of population growth."

He added that this will balance both the needs represented by the latest population, and progress made by states towards population control.

Nitish also suggested that the latest commission consider "grants-in-aid" for state-specific needs as recommended by the 13th commission. The 14th commission had also recommended it, but it was not implemented.

Nitish iterated the assertion that though the transfers to states increased from 32 per cent to 42 per cent as per the recommendations of the 14th commission, the increase was negated by reductions in allocations by the Centre for the central plan schemes and Centre-sponsored schemes to the states and Union Territories.

"The statewise distribution pattern also led to a decrease in Bihar's share from 10.92 per cent during the 13th Finance Commission to 9.67 per cent during the 14th Finance Commission," Nitish added.

The chief minister also pointed how Bihar's good work in increasing the green cover has been overlooked by the last Finance Commission and also reminded that the backwardness of Bihar stemmed from historically lopsided policies, and socio-economic reasons.

He also said that despite all the unhelpful conditions and inherent bias, Bihar has witnessed a double digit growth over the last 12-13 years due to a concerted effort by the state government to turn the tide of underdevelopment.