Unfortunate that demand for special status for Bihar ignored by central government: Nitish Kumar

Patna, Feb.21 (ANI): Reacting to the granting of special status to Seemandhra for a period of five years by the government, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday said it was unfortunate that the central government, which has the power to grant special status to any state, has denied the same to Bihar.

"The fact that Seemandra will be given a special status proves that the government can grant special status to any state whenever they want," said Kumar.

"I am not against the special status which is to be given to Seemandhra, but the people of Bihar have been demanding it for a long time. Over one crore, and 18 lakh people from Bihar had put their signatures on a sheet that requested for special status for Bihar .Why wasn't a decision taken on this?" he asked.

"We had made a request to the prime minister regarding this, but instead he formed a committee for it which denied the granting of a special status to Bihar, but advocated special help for the same," he added.

He further said that the Raghurajan Committee Report was not satisfactory, and appropriate steps were not taken to address issues related to Bihar.

"We were not completely satisfied with the Raghurajan Committee Report. They declared ten states as backward, and we were assured that appropriate steps will be taken, but nothing was done. They have committed an injustice with Bihar and other backwards states," Kumar said.

"This is an aspiration and a demand of the people of Bihar. The people of Bihar will not tolerate if this matter is ignored. It is extremely unfortunate, and we will continue to raise this demand till the time it is not addressed to," he added.

The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill or the Telangana Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday in the face of noisy protests.

"Sonia Gandhi and the party decided to give justice to the people of Seemandhra and everyone supported the passage of Telangana," said Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

Shinde also said that a special category state status would be given to Seemandhra for a period of five years. (ANI)