Patna: Brushing aside Union Rural Development minister C P Joshi's reported statement against his demand for securing a special category status for Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said he would seek appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to press for the demand.
"Perhaps Joshi is not fully aware of the issue. The state Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution and forwarded the same to the Centre on April 4, 2006, to accord a special state category to Bihar for its backwardness," Kumar said.
"The state government later approached Prime Minister for allowing an all-party delegation from Bihar to meet him on April 13, 2006, but unfortunately we are yet to receive a response", he informed in Patna.
Asserting that Bihar deserved the special state status given its poor economic situation and infrastructure, Kumar said he would once again request the PM to give an opportunity to the representatives of the parties to revive Bihar's case.
Kumar also called for pruning the number of centrally-sponsored schemes arguing the state suffered a lot by giving a matching grant for execution of these schemes.
The issue related to the pruning of the schemes had already been discussed at a meeting of the national development council in 2001 and a sub-committee was working on it, he reminded and said the matter should be expedited.
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