Bihar deserves special state status: CM Nitish Kumar
Patna, Feb 14: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said Bihar "deserves" the special state status and iterated his demand for it.
The special status, which entitles a state to a number of central privileges, is very essential for Bihar, Kumar, who has been pressing for it for some years, said.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of his weekly outreach programme, the chief minister said that according to the Niti Aayog Bihar is a backward state.
"Despite the (Bihar) government's efforts the growth rate is not enough. Therefore we are demanding special category status to Bihar. What is wrong in it ?" he asked.
Replying to queries by scribes, Kumar claimed that the Niti Aayog has used old parameters to evaluate Bihar and its evaluation process is not justified as the state is developing in every sector each year.
I am not bothered about those who are opposing the demand of special status to Bihar. I don't even care. We all know that the state's per capita income, human resources and standard of living are much below the national average. The density of population is high in the state. Therefore, Bihar needs special status, Kumar asserted.
Responding to a question on Bihar government's plan to conduct caste-based census in the state after the Centre's refusal to hold census of castes other than SCs and STs, Kumar said, We will soon convene an all-party meeting on the issue and after that the exercise will be initiated in the state .
The weekly public interaction was held after a month due to the third wave of COVID in the state.
Bihar BJP President, Sanjay Jaiswal, in a recent Facebook post had countered JD(U)'s demand for the special status and alleged that the state government is not able to develop Bihar because of its failures. The central government on the other hand is supporting the state at every step.
Bihar is an ally of Kumar's JD-U in the state.
Maharashtra's population is only one crore more than Bihar. Yet Bihar gets Rs 31,000 crore more than Maharashtra from the central resources. Bengal is also a backward state like Bihar, but Bihar gets Rs. 21,000 crore more than that, he wrote.
BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy too took a jibe at JD(U) leaders' demand for speacial status to the state and said it was "baseless".
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
