Nitish, Chidambaram befooling people on special status category

Patna,(BiharTimes): Former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday accused the chief minister Nitish Kumar and Union finance minister P Chidambaram of befooling the people in the name of special category status to Bihar.

In a statement he said the demand of special category status was nothing but an election stunt of the Janata Dal (United).

He said both Nitish and Chidambaram are misleading people. Even the constitution of a panel for composite development index of states under central economic adviser Raghuram G Rajan was an eyewash since there was no mention of special status in its term of reference.

Modi claimed that though this committee was to submit its recommendations in 60 days yet it had failed to submit its report after the deadline expired.

Modi, who was also the former finance minister, said special category status was neither mentioned in Chidambaram’s Budget speech nor in the Economic Survey.

He said Chidambaram had only stressed on revisiting the criteria for Backward Region Grant Fund and devolution of funds.

The BJP leader said as there is no reference of special category status to the states at any point, Nitish and Chidambaram should clarify their position and tell the people on what ground the chief minister is claiming that the committee has been constituted to recommend criteria for special category status.

Incidentally, the BJP leader never opposed the constitution of the committee by the Centre when he himself was the deputy chief minister-cum-finance minister of the state.

In fact BiharTimes was the first to raise this issue on June 15, 2013, that is a day before the dismissal of Modi and 10 other BJP ministers by Nitish. (See Column section of BiharTimes: “Special State Status: Mere Misrepresentation or Blatant Misrepresentation” by Prateek K Anand).