Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his statement that Bihar would get more share in the 14th Finance Commission.
He also slammed the Centre for doing a U-turn on according special category status to the state.
Nitish was speaking at a function organised by the information and public relations department at Adhiveshan Bhavan in which he delivered the keynote address on the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in helping the government to tackle social challenges in Bihar.
"The leader sitting at the top says that Bihar would get Rs 3.83 lakh crore in the 14th Finance Commission but the fact is something else. The commission has Rs 39.48 lakh crore to distribute to states of which Bihar was expected to get its pie. Our share in the 13th Finance Commission was 10.89 per cent. Now, it has decreased to 9.72 per cent. This scenario implies a loss of over Rs 5,000 crore in five years," said Nitish.
During the July 25 visit to the state, the Prime Minister had questioned Nitish's claims on the 14th Finance Commission recommendations by declaring that Bihar would get over Rs 3.75 lakh crore between 2015 and 2020 compared to just Rs 1.5 lakh crore it got during the previous commission period (2010-2014).
Before Nitish, the other panellists also expressed concern on the topic and praised Bihar for its extraordinary feat in the fields of education, health and sanitation.
The other important people present included Rajya Sabha MP, diplomat, political and social worker Mani Shankar Aiyar.
Reacting to the appeal of National Institute of Technology director Ashok De on setting up industry in the state, Nitish said: "We are eager to set industry in Bihar and for that, we have been demanding special category status. We had also launched a signature campaign in which 1.8 crore people signed. However, it is sad to say that people just forget their promises after making it."
One of the main components of getting the special category status was devolution of fund in the ratio of 90:10, making the state free of central taxes for setting up industries.
"Industries are being set up only at places, where they is already a concentration of industries. However, no one wants to set up industry in Bihar. If we get the special category status, industries would automatically come here because industrialists would get tax concessions," said Nitish.
Two days ago, Union minister of state for planning Rao Indrajit Singh had said in the Lok Sabha that there was no proposal as of now to accord special category status to Bihar, triggering anger among JDU leaders in Bihar.
Touching upon Bihari pride, Nitish said Biharis had already made their mark and working across the country.
Talking about the role of CSOs, Nitish said it can play important role in forming the policy and its implementation apart from monitoring it.
