Nitish demands more Central funds, spl status for state

Feb 28, 2020

Bhubaneswar: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday made a forceful demand to the Centre to give special status to his state, so that it could reach the level of national average.

Kumar reiterated the long standing demand in front of Home Minister Amit Shah while speaking at the Eastern Zonal Council.

He said for all backward states, special treatment was a must for their development.

The Chief Minister sought to remind the Centre that it still owes to the state Rs 911.82 cr from the Backward Region Grant Fund.

Kumar also demanded return of the 10 CRPF batallions taken away from Bihar for deployment in other parts of the country, and setting up Rapid Action headquarter in Bihar ( for which land has been made available) keeping in view the sensitive character of the state.

In this context the Chief Minister urged the Centre to share with the state the expenses on maintaining paramilitary forces.

Kumar also sought formulation of a National Silt Management Policy to take care of floods in Ganga river.

Earlier, Home Minister Amit Shah in his address to the Council said that the eastern region needs more focus to fast track its development .

The meeting was also attended by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as Vice Chairman and host, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Jharkhand Finance Minister Ramesh Oraon and senior officers from the Central and state governments.

Shah hoped that the meeting would be a fruitful and stressed that according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision, decisions taken by consensus should be implemented to further strengthen the federal structure of the country.

The Home Minister also expressed his satisfaction at usefulness of Zonal Council mechanism and informed that more than 70 per cent issues have been resolved based on the recent meetings of the Zonal Councils and remaining issues are also under resolution.

While Patnaik raised the issue of increase in royalty on coal, Banerjee raised the issue of delay in payments of GST proceeds and devolution of funds.

–India News Stteam