Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday took a jab at his ally in the presence of Sushil Kumar Modi and Nand Kishore Yadav when he said the Centre had still not paid

Rs 970 crore — spent by the state government during his first tenure as chief minister — to repair and maintain national highways.

“There has been no occasion during talks between the Centre and state government when this matter has not come up. But everybody just smiles,” he said while inaugurating the orientation programme for newly recruited junior engineers on Friday. His remarks left his BJP colleagues red-faced.

The matter pertains to the period from 2005 to 2009 when the Nitish government went all out to improve the bad condition of roads in the state. The condition of Bihar’s national highways was equally bad. The state road construction department is the nodal agency for maintenance of national highways, the Centre providing funds for the same.

After repairing the national highways in Bihar, the state government accused the then Congress-led Union government of not paying Rs 970 crore incurred in the same. Nand Kishore Yadav, the road construction minister then too, had issued several statements.

On Friday, Nitish also referred to Bihta where the new airport is to come up. “We wanted the Centre to build an elevated road to the airport,” Nitish said. “The ministers wanted to do it, but their officials were reluctant.” He said the state government will build the elevated road at its own cost now. Nitish also referred to work on Bailey road. “It’s now called Jawaharlal Nehru Road but everybody still calls it Bailey Road. I am not a follower of Nehru, I follow Gandhi and Lohia. But I feel bad when everybody still calls a road named after Nehru as Bailey Road,” he said.

Nitish gave details of changes he had brought in construction of roads and buildings. “Even I cannot recognise newly-built police stations I have inaugurated,” he said.

He asked junior engineers to ensure work quality. “A lot of work has been done in Bihar, a lot more has to be done. Don’t worry about being appointed on contract. Whenever recruitment is made for permanent engineers, weightage will be given to the services you are rendering,” he said, adding that he welcomed entry of young engineers. “When I came to power, a lot of engineers had no work. When I increased the pace of work they began complaining about being over-worked,” he said.