Making a pitch for special category status for Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday, urged the Centre to grant an economic package for the backward State on the lines of those given to Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and the North-Eastern states.
Kumar, who had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier this month seeking the status for resource-starved Bihar, submitted a seven-page memorandum to Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who called on him after attending a state-level meeting of the coordination committee of bankers here.
The memorandum, apart from seeking payment of dues as per the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000, sought the Union Finance Minister's intervention to avail of the debt relief facility to fund the State's economic growth, steps for increasing credit-deposit ratio and coverage of all the 38 districts under Backward Districts Initiative (BDI) programme of the Rashtriya Samvikas Yojana.
The State, it said, had not yet been paid Rs 1669.5 crore as on March 31, 2005, on account of pensionary and other terminal benefit for the employees superannuated before the bifurcation of the state as per the Bihar Reorganisation Act.
It also sought the Centre's intervention to secure dues of Rs 221.38 crore on account of payment made towards the State Government guaranteed bonds.
"The Government of Bihar has repeatedly taken up this issue with the Centre and the government of Jharkhand. In view of Bihar having adopted the Fiscal Reform and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, these dues are likely to adversely affect achieving the fiscal targets in terms of fiscal and revenue deficits envisaged in the act," he told Chidambaram.
Kumar, who had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier this month seeking the status for resource-starved Bihar, submitted a seven-page memorandum to Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who called on him after attending a state-level meeting of the coordination committee of bankers here.
The memorandum, apart from seeking payment of dues as per the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000, sought the Union Finance Minister's intervention to avail of the debt relief facility to fund the State's economic growth, steps for increasing credit-deposit ratio and coverage of all the 38 districts under Backward Districts Initiative (BDI) programme of the Rashtriya Samvikas Yojana.
The State, it said, had not yet been paid Rs 1669.5 crore as on March 31, 2005, on account of pensionary and other terminal benefit for the employees superannuated before the bifurcation of the state as per the Bihar Reorganisation Act.
It also sought the Centre's intervention to secure dues of Rs 221.38 crore on account of payment made towards the State Government guaranteed bonds.
"The Government of Bihar has repeatedly taken up this issue with the Centre and the government of Jharkhand. In view of Bihar having adopted the Fiscal Reform and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, these dues are likely to adversely affect achieving the fiscal targets in terms of fiscal and revenue deficits envisaged in the act," he told Chidambaram.
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