Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday replied to all the charges leveled by Narendra Modi point by point and said the PM looked very desperate and frustrated. “With the slowdown of the country’s economy and fall of Sensex, the PM’s dignity and position is also falling and he is venting his anger against me,” Nitish said.
Taking exception to PM’s claim that Bihar will get `3.7 lakh crore from the Central exchequer at the recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission in five years, the CM said this devolution of funds to the States is the Centre’s constitutional obligation under federal structure and not a mercy by the Centre. “Can he stop this devolution of funds to the States which is their rightIJ” he asked and added that Bihar will suffer a loss of `50,000 as per the recommendations.
Nitish said `55,000 crore the PM referred to as development budget was in fact the plan size of Bihar and the actual State budget was worth `1.30 lakh crore. Saying that the PM lacked understanding of the basic fundamentals, he said the size of the plan and annual budget size increases every year. Not only that, he added, the State’s tax revenue and borrowing capacity was also increasing.
The CM dished out figures of the Indian economy and said in agriculture the growth rate decreased to 1.9% from the earlier 2.6%, the industrial growth came down to 6.6% from 2014’s 7.7% and the in the manufacturing sector the growth rate which was 8.4% in 2014 has slipped to 7.2%.
Nitish also rubbished the PM’s claim that number of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) has declined, he gave the figures that in 2006 the number of PHCs was 398 which has gone up to 533 of which 120 are upgraded community health centres and each PHC is being visited by 11,000 patients every day. “I don’t know from where he got the manufactured figures,” the CM said sarcastically.
“The unity and strength show by JD(U), RJD, Congress and Samajwadi Party has made Modi desperate. His aggression is reduced to defence and he is left with no issue. He was so defensive that he did not take any name today,” Nitish said and accused the PM of using lose words like chele chapate. “I always call them followers of Goebbels. Modi should tell people whose chela he is,” he said.
The CM also stated that since 2006 he has been presenting report card of his Government every year and now presented an integrated report card of ten years. “Modi is in power for 15 months but why he did not present account of his governance and now says he would give accounts after five years,” he added.
