Patna, (Bihar Times): Chief minister Nitish Kumar has
written a letter to the Prime Minister, Manmohan
Singh, protesting against the cut in the relief
package for the 2007 floods in Bihar.
Talking to the newsmen at Janata Darbar on Monday he took the Centre to task for drastically slashing its relief package. He said a sum of Rs 2,156 crore was admissible to the state under the Calamity Relief Fund and National Central Calamity Fund against the relief expenditure for last year’s flood. But the Centre assessed the requirement for relief to be only Rs 745.26 crore and stated that this may be adjusted from the CRS balance of the state government.
Releasing the letter to the mediapersons he dubbed the Centre’s move as discriminatory and a great injustice. This negative attitude of the Centre will certainly not augur well on the Centre-state relationship, he said. He said that he would took the issue to masses.
Various Union ministers from Bihar had repeatedly charged the state government with neglecting the flood victims of the 2007 flood. With parliamentary election due within a few months flood relief is likely to become a political issue.
