Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to give Bihar the status of Special Category State, during the meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) in Patna. He also requested Mr. Shah to include the new State law on higher reservation in the ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
The 26th EZC meet which lasted for three hours was organised at Patna’s Samvad – the Chief Minister Secretariat. The meeting was presided over by Mr. Shah.
Giving the details of the funds that will be spent in the next five years in Bihar after the caste-based survey, Mr. Kumar said, “A total of ₹2.5 lakh crore will be spent on all the works which will be completed in the next 5 years. If Bihar gets the status of ‘Special State’ by the Central Government, then we will complete this work in a very short time. We have been demanding special status for Bihar since 2010, Bihar is a very historical state, but despite continuous development initiatives, Bihar stands far below the national average in the parameters of development. Bihar fulfils all the conditions for the status of a special State. Now the caste-based survey is also done. I hope that you will definitely think about giving special State status to Bihar,” Mr. Kumar said.
He added that the reservation limit in the State has been increased from 50% to 65% and and 10% reservation is already available for economically weaker section (EWS) of general category. Mr. Kumar stressed that all together the total reservation has reached 75%.
“Our government has requested the Central Government to include the new reservation law in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution. I hope that the Central Government will soon include it in the 9th Schedule. I have full hope that the [Union] Home Minister will definitely take initiative to conduct a caste-based census across the country and give Special State status to Bihar.” Mr. Kumar said.
In favour of caste census: Shah
Mr. Shah said that when his party was in power in Bihar, it had supported the caste-based survey, said a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs on the Eastern Zonal Council meeting. He said the Central government never had any intention of creating hurdles in the caste-based survey.
Mr. Kumar was meeting Mr. Shah for the first time in Patna after he snapped ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in August last year.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, West Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, Jharkhand Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon and Odisha Minister of State for Home Tushar Kranti Behera and other officials were also present.
The Chief Ministers of Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal did not turn up for the meeting.
When Mr. Shah reached Patna, Bihar Finance Minister Vijay Chaudhary was at the airport to welcome him. BJP State president Samrat Chaudhary and leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Vijay Sinha also welcomed him.
