He submitted a 17-point memorandum to the Prime Minister and once again demanded special category status for Bihar, more funds for the state, coal linkage to power projects and expeditious setting up of Nalanda International University, a brainchild of former President, A P J Abdul Kalam.

The chief minister demanded re-imbursement of a sum of Rs 970 crore spent by the state government over maintenance of National Highways, which comes under the central subject.

Nitish also met Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and thanked him for the additional allotment of over Rs 1.000 crore under the Bihar Special Plan for 2010-2011. He demanded more fund for Bihar’s development.

Nitish, who arrived in the national capital for the first time after winning the Assembly election for the second time, attended the Chief Ministers’ Conference on internal security on Tuesday. He had a handshake with his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, which got due media coverage. Last year June Nitish felt offended when an advertisement issued on the eve of the BJP national executive carried his photo with Modi and he clasping each other’s hand. He even cancelled the dinner with the BJP leaders who were in Patna to attend the national executive.

On Thursday he was supposed to call on Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee but the appointment could not materialize. However, he met the Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav, who is also in Delhi. Among other issues floods in the plains of north Bihar were discussed in the meeting.

In his letter to Manmohan, the Bihar chief minister also asked for Presidential assent to the Bihar Sugarcane (Purchase and Supply) Regulation Act 1981 and withdrawing the Sugarcane (Control) Order permitting only existing sugar factories to produce ethanol directly from sugar cane juice.

Talking to mediapersons on Wednesday Nitish held the Centre’s non-cooperation on coal linkage and its policy on ethanol production responsible for investments not coming to Bihar.

He urged the Prime Minister to consider constituting a Special Task Force under his Principal Secretary to monitor implementation of the works and keep him informed on the progress on these demands.

He said that out of Rs 1459.54 crore sanctioned for drought relief only a sum of Rs 341.08 crore has been released to Bihar. The state had in fact demanded Rs 6573.45 crore for this purpose.

The chief minister said the state should be given special category status to attract investment and asked for an appointment from the Prime Minister so that an all party delegation can come to submit him a memorandum on this issue.

He also said there is a need to reverse the downward trend of gross budgetary support for states.

Meanwhile, in a letter addressed to Union Finance Minister, Nitish reiterated the demand for declaring Bihar a special category state and expressed concern over dwindling share of Bihar in the 13th Finance Commission grants. He demanded an independent commission to identify BPL families and revision in allocation of Bihar in Public Distribution System and other social sector schemes.

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