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Patna,(BiharTimes): About 12 years later Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday honestly confessed that he was initially opposed to the bifurcation of Bihar, but accepted it only after the then Vajpayee government made a commitment to compensate the state for economic losses it would suffer after losing naturally its richest part.
Releasing two books on Jharkhand in Patna he said he was initially opposed to the bifurcation of Bihar not only due to long association of the people of the two states, but also for economic losses to Bihar after carving out of Jharkhand. |
The chief minister, who was then a senior minister in the Vajpayee cabinet, said that he withdrew his opposition after the NDA government made a provision in the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000, to create a cell in the Planning Commission to provide special assistance to Bihar to compensate it for losses.
He said the Jharkhand part of Bihar was rich in natural resources which fostered economic activities and industrialisation, besides development of infrastructure, educational institutions and related sectors.
Ironically, he went on to say that even the state government in the erstwhile united Bihar heavily invested in Jharkhand districts and gave further impetus to development there which attracted people from the state and elsewhere in the country to seek job and prosperity there.
He regretted that the new state, though rich in resource, has yet to make a mark as a stable region due to a host of problems and divergence of aspirations of the people.
The Bihar chief minister said that Jharkhand needs to address social conflict and create a sense of unity among the indigenous people and settlers. This will bring political stability and good governance.
Nitish’s speech is a significant departure from the past. When RJD chief Lalu Yadav had then opposed the bifurcation of Bihar and even threatened that it would be created only on his dead body all the opposition parties pooh-poohed him. Even he had to agree to the creation of Jharkhand when Congress, while lending support to the Rabri Devi government in March 2000, made creation of Jharkhand as a condition for it. The Congress was then under intense pressure because both the JMM and BJP, which were strong in Jharkhand part of the then Bihar, had intensified the campaign for the creation of a new state.However, the Bihar Assembly had a few months before the creation of Jharkhand in 2000, unanimously passed a resolution demanding Rs 1,79,000 crore as a compensation package for Bihar, but the truncated state could never get that amount notwithstanding the fact that Nitish was in that ministry till May 2004.
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