After a lull of almost one year Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has revived his demand for special category status to Bihar. Nitish, after rejoining the NDA in July last, had not pressed for this demand even though this issue, believed to be closed to his heart, has been focal point at all platforms.
Other leaders of his party JD(U) though spoke on this issue particularly after Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu broke ties with the NDA after being denied special status, but in restricted tone. The Opposition has made fun of Nitish’s stand. Suddenly Nitish raked up this demand amid the political speculations that he was feeling uneasy in the company of BJP leadership and ignorance of the Bihar demands like flood relief and compensation.
The Centre approved a compensation of Rs 1700 crore against the demand of over Rs 6000 crore for the floods 2017 and after deducting Rs 500 crore which was announced by the PM, it released only Rs 1200 crore. The BJP is however, not vocal on this demand. However, the CM has not raised the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi but with the 15th Finance Commission.
