Ranchi, Sept. 2: (PTI)Jharkhand might have to pay nearly Rs 4,000 crore to Bihar for the settlement of employees’ pension and state liabilities to government-run corporations.

At a meeting convened by Union home secretary G.K. Pillai in Delhi yesterday, Bihar demanded about Rs 4,000 crore from Jharkhand, mainly to settle the pension liabilities of employees who had worked under the Bihar government before the bifurcation of Bihar in 2000, said a top official source today.

The demand, estimated up to March 2010, has been pending for a decade since the creation of Jharkhand.

The distribution of assets and liabilities between the mother state, Bihar, and Jharkhand has been done according to the Bihar Reorganization Act, 2000. However, the distribution of liabilities on these two accounts has been a bone of contention between the two states.

According to the Act, the state’s liability for employees’ pension and state guarantees to corporations are to be distributed according to the ratio of employees distributed between the two states, the official said.

On the other hand, similar liabilities in case of Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh, created simultaneously, were settled based on the proportion of population distribution in the states, he claimed.

In yesterday’s meeting, Bihar chief secretary Anup Mukherjee demanded the payment of the liabilities by Jharkhand according to the Bihar Reorganization Act, 2000. His Jharkhand counterpart Ashok Kumar Singh urged for the adoption of norms as followed in Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh to settle the liabilities.

Pillai asked the two states to settle the liability issue amicably in 60 days.