Centre has played much bigger role in Bihar’s development: Congress leader

Patna,(BiharTimes): A few days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tweeted about the high growth rate in Bihar––which the chief minister interpreted it as a pat on the back––Congress legislature party leader and former speaker, Sadanand Singh, attributed all the developments in the state to the generosity shown by the UPA government in the Centre.

Talking to reporters outside state Assembly on Wednesday he said the chief minister Nitish Kumar was trying to confuse masses about high growth rate with the help of “heap of papers” and “lengthy talks” when the “truth is that some development has taken place in Bihar due to Centre providing liberal funds to the state and some enterprising farmers achieving record breaking production of paddy and potatoes.” In contrast the state government has not even added one MW of power in the last seven years.

Sadanand said the Centre was pumping huge amount of funds by way of MNREGA, road and other projects and raising annual budget to Rs 34,000 crore for 2013-14 and other schemes in which state’s share is not more than 20 per cent.

He termed Nitish Kumar’s demand for special category status as “contradictory” and said the JD(U) rally in Delhi on March 17 is “politically motivated”.

The Congress leader said on the one hand, the chief minister talks about big growth rate and on the other the state government data says that the number of people below poverty line is increasing. The two developments are totally contradictory.

He supported the opinion of economist Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyer that Bihar could no longer claim to be a backward state and according to him it did not qualify for special category status.