Patna, July 24: Taking exception to the Centre’s lackadaisical attitude towards containing the price rise, chief minister Nitish Kumar today said the central government was at God’s mercy.

Reacting on the Centre’s decision to increase the petrol price again, Nitish said: “People running the central government are least concerned about masses. The government has not taken any step to contain price rise. It is functioning at God’s mercy.”

Before boarding the flight to New Delhi for attending the swearing-in ceremony of the 13th President of India, Nitish said: “I have got an invitation to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Pranab Mukherjee as the President of India. I have congratulated Mukherjee over the phone and invited him to visit Bihar. I will attend the ceremony tomorrow and extend a formal invitation to Mukherjee to visit Bihar.”

Nitish’s JD(U) had supported the UPA nominee, Mukherjee, in the presidential election antagonising its 16-year-old ally — the BJP. The latter supported Independent candidate and former Speaker P.A. Sangma. Nitish had told Mukherjee in the run-up to the election that there was no need to visit Bihar for campaigning.

Asked if his Assam counterpart talked to him over the death of a youth of the Northeast state in Bihar, Nitish said: “The Assam chief minister did not talk to me on the issue. Instead, I have asked our director-general of police to update his Assam counterpart on the developments in the probe. Bihar police have taken the case as a challenge and the matter would certainly be taken to a logical conclusion as the youth (Pritam Bhattacharjee) was murdered in Bihar.”