Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here for the first time since JD(U)-BJP split in 2013 and sought more funds from the Centre saying his State was losing Rs50,000 crore on account of the Finance Commission's recommendations.
The Chief Minister said the State's share in Centrally-sponsored schemes has been decreased. “Altogether, it has been a loss to Bihar. That is why I have requested that Bihar should be compensated for this,” Kumar told newspersons after the meeting. PMO said the meeting was a “courtesy call”.
“The second issue that I have raised is that there is a question mark now also on the special assistance that Bihar used to get under BRGF (Backward Regions Grant Fund) after the bifurcation of the State in 2000. Our doubts should be resolved. We should get that money and we should keep getting that money even in future,” he said.
Kumar said he discussed financial issues related to Bihar, particularly in the context of implementation of the 14th Finance Commission recommendations which he said will cause a loss of Rs50,000 crore to Bihar.
The Bihar CM said the Central Government has already given its nod for all the schemes that are to be implemented in five years with the Rs12,000 crore fund that the State has got.
An all-party meeting convened by Kumar in Bihar on March 23, which was boycotted by the BJP, had decided to “write” to the Prime Minister about the “estimated Rs50,000 crore loss” to the State due to the Finance Commission recommendations. Not in the best of political terms with each other even when JD(U) was part of the NDA, the two leaders are expected to queer the pitch of their rivalry in the poll-bound State which is going to poll later this year. The BJP is to start its campaigning in Bihar on April 14.
When Kumar was the CM heading BJP-JD(U) coalition, he had called off a dinner for the visiting BJP leaders in June 2010 after a photograph of Modi holding hands with him at a BJP national executive had appeared in some local newspapers in the State.
Kumar also refused to share the dais with Modi when the BJP-JD(U) alliance was still intact. However, on March 22 (Bihar Foundation Day), the PM had greeted Nitish Kumar on phone when both spoke to each other after a passage of time.