Special category status issue would be raised in NDC: Nitish

Patna,(BiharTimes): Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said he would raise the demand for special category status for Bihar at the National Development Council meeting, which is to be held in New Delhi on December 27.

On Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s plea that other states would make similar demands Nitish said, he told the Prime Minister to make a separate yardstick for states lagging behind in growth rate and provide them special category status for inclusive growth.

The chief minister had recently handed over a six-page letter written by him on the demand to provide special category status to Bihar to spur growth.

An Inter-Ministerial Group constituted by the Prime Minister had already rejected the Bihar CM’s demand on the ground that it did not qualify for the mandatory condition of being a hilly region with a predominant tribal population.

Nitish once again said that fluctuation in average growth rate at national level was due to the fact that plans were prepared considering prosperous states leaving behind backward states like Bihar.

According to him Bihar accounts for over eight percent of the country's population but is contributing only 2.9 percent of the nation’s GDP. The chief minister said he wanted to raise this to 10 per cent which could be achieved only when the state was provided special status.