Special status main poll plank, says Bihar CM

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said that either the State should be accorded “special status” before the next year Lok Sabha elections or else, it (demand for special status) will become the main poll plank during the 2014 parliamentary elections.

Nitish, who has been spearheading the demand for special category status for the State to fast track its development process, was speaking to media two days after getting an assurance from Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on the issue. During his one-to-one meeting with Nitish here, the Finance Minister had indicated to the JD-U strongman that Bihar was closer to bagging the status of special State.

“The State will certainly qualify for special category status under the new criteria for determining backwardness,” Chidambaram said during his Bihar visit on Saturday, and added that a high-level committee, headed by Finance Minister’s Chief Economic Advisor Raghuram Rajan, would be constituted to work on the criteria and submit its report in a month’s time.

“Apart from Bihar, other States, which have not progressed so far and have remained backward over the years due to topography and other factors, too will be benefited after the committee revisits the criteria for deciding backwardness,” averred Nitish, shortly after he ended his Janata durbar programme here on Monday.