Patna,(BiharTimes): Submitting its memorandum to the 14th Finance Commission the state government on Tuesday demanded Rs 63,633.48 crore in Bihar-specific priority areas.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar, along with his cabinet colleagues and senior bureaucrats, had a meeting with the Commission chairman and former RBI governor Y B Reddy. The funds demanded in priority sector include agriculture road map, Manav Vikas mission and governance reforms.

In agriculture road map, the Bihar government has demanded Rs 8,370.44 crore in electricity sector. For rural connectivity by roads the state has demanded Rs 26,535.60 crore. Rupees 6,102 crore has been demanded under the Manav Vikas Mission for secondary education.

Speaking on the occasion Nitish Kumar asked the Commission to finance all centrally sponsored schemes completely, instead of leaving it to the states through match grants. This would facilitate better fiscal autonomy to states and Union.

The chief minister also demanded that the formula of central tax devolution in the states should be done in two ways: first, the ratio of central devolution to states should be increased from 32 per cent to 50 per cent. Secondly, weightage should be given to important yardsticks on different scales.

Seeking Rs 6,102 crore for secondary education the chief minister said that the state government has decided to set up a higher secondary school in the 8,406 gram panchayats in four years.“Apart from the existing high schools, the state needs to set up over 4,500 new higher secondary schools. With an estimated cost of each schools coming to Rs 1.15 crore, the total requirement is Rs 6,102.48 crore in the next four years.

The other members of the Commission were Abhijit Sen, member, Planning Commission, Sushma Nath former Union finance secretary, M Govinda Rao, the director of National Institute for Public Finance and Policy and Sudipto Mundle, the former acting chairman of National Statistical Commission.

While the memorandum had the backing of all political parties the Congress had a different take on the issue. It said that the state should do its own on the centrally sponsored scheme before criticising the Centre and urging it to change its policy.