Patna, April 1: The BJP today said the release of Rs 1,767 crore to Bihar under the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) was "part of" the special plan announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi prior to last year's Assembly elections, but the government said it had no official communication yet on this.
"It is a part of the special plan for Bihar which was already announced by the Prime Minister before the elections. Since the Fourteenth Finance Commission has put an end to BRGF, the only way to give pending funds was through a recommendation of the Niti Aayog ," said senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, a former deputy chief minister who held the finance portfolio when the BJP was a part of the Nitish Kumar government.
"Upon NITI Aayog's suggestion, Rs1,767 crore released as special plan for Bihar, in order to complete earlier sanctioned projects under BRGF," the Niti Aayog had tweeted yesterday, the last day of the 2015-2016 financial year.
Prime Minister Modi had, on August 18 last year, announced a special package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore for Bihar and also promised "pending funds".
Under the 12th Five Year Plan, the total committed funds to Bihar under BRGF was Rs 12,000 crore.
However, the amount received till the financial year 2014-15 was Rs 3,718 crore. In February this year, Nitish met Union finance minister Arun Jaitley and requested him to release the remaining Rs 8,282 crore as committed under BRGF. The chief minister had pointed out that the 12th Five Year Plan would end in March 2017, but Bihar has so far got only one-third of the committed amount.
The state finance department though appears to be still in the dark over the release of this fund. "There has been no official communication given to us. We have also come to know about it through the tweet in the official Niti Aayog handle. But if the money comes, the Centre would only be giving us our dues," argued Bihar finance minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui.
Finance department sources, who spoke under cover of anonymity, said the Rs 1,767 crore released by the Centre could be part of this pending fund, but could not be deemed to being part of the Prime Minister's special package. The remaining amount of Rs 6,516 crore, they added, would have to be released during the current financial year subject to fulfilment of scheme guidelines.
Siddiqui claimed better financial performance during 2014-15. "Till March 31, 2016, we have pent over 94 per cent of the plan budget and over 91 per cent of the non-plan budget. If we have not been able to spend around Rs 9,000 crore it is because of elections held last year and the fact that we did not get funds we had anticipated from the Centre," he said.
The political rivals are set to lock horns over central tax devolution on Monday when the legislative bodies are expected to hold a special debate on central funds to Bihar. Nitish has been charging the Narendra Modi government with slashing funds to Bihar - especially funds for key projects such as rural electrification, education and Indira Awas Yojana.
The BJP on the other hand points out that there has been a quantum jump in funds given to the state. "Previously the yearly rise of central funds used to be between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 crore. In 2015-16, the jump was about Rs 9,000 crore, from Rs 36,963 crore to Rs 45,906 crore. More important, it is untied funds which the state government could use in any way it wants," said Sushil Modi.
