Nitish makes it mandatory for Babus to declare assets

"Circulars have been issued to the Grade I to Grade III public servants making it mandatory for them to declare their assets every year", Kumar told reporters. He said his cabinet colleagues have also decided to declare their assets.

Listing priorities before the government after the NDA led by him pulled off a landslide vicory in Bihar, Kumar said he would soon meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking the Centre's help for 'Mission Develop Bihar'.

"The Prime Minister has congratulated me during the victory and also promised full cooperation and support... there are several issues to which the Centre's support is required and I will rake up the issue during my meeting with the PM soon", he said.

Kumar was apparently referring to his long-cherished dream of obtaining sepcial state category status for Bihar and removal of restrictions on manufacturing ethanol from sugarcane juice.

He hoped that the Centre would fully cooperate with the state for achieving the objective to bring it to the category of the most developed state in India by 2015. Referring to the nine-day winter session of the two houses of the state legislature which was adjourned sine die today, he said the session was short because it was called under constitutional obligations following formation of a new government.

"We will soon be convening the budget session for presenting full budget for 2011-12 for Bihar... it will be quite a long session", he said. He reiterated that the state government would bring a new legislation in the form of Right to Service bill for reaching much-needed help to the people for the matters related to public utilities.

Advocating to scrap provisions for allocation of funds for local area development to legislatures, the Chief Minister said the department concerned should be engaged for development of their constituencies.

Kumar said he had raised the issue during the meeting of National Democratic Alliance and several senior leaders had lent support to him in this connection.

Referring to the demand for rechristening Patna as Patliputra, the Chief Minister said he did think it is appropriate at this stage.

Pointing out that Madras was rechristened as Chennai to meet the long-standing demand of people, Kumar referred to the issue of naming the new rail station near Digha at Patna as Patliputra railway station.