Modi's Bihar package is mere repackaging, says Nitish

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said the bulk of the Rs.1.25 lakh crore announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as special package for Bihar was a "mere repackaging of old schemes".

"A closer look reveals that against the claim of Rs.1.25 lakh crore, at least Rs.1.08 lakh crore worth projects is nothing but a mere repackaging of old schemes," Nitish Kumar told the media here.

He said this included appropriation of pre-approved allocations for old ones and continued contribution to ongoing schemes which were announced by various ministries at different points of time in the past.

"Further, few new line items, totalling to the tune of about Rs.6,000 crore, are a part of the package for which there is not even a shred of evidence of planning or work on ground," he added.

"Thus, in totality, at very best, the so called Rs.1.25 lakh crore package will not provide anything more than Rs.10,368 crore as additional or incremental resource to the state of Bihar.

"This, Rs.10,368 crore, too in the absence of a defined timeline or disbursement modalities, hardly means anything to the state," added the Janata Dal-United leader.

Modi announced the Bihar package on August 18 while addressing an election campaign rally at Arrah.

Nitish Kumar then vowed to "expose the truth" behind the Bihar package, hinting that several ongoing projects worth thousands of crores of rupees were included in it.

But BJP leaders are upbeat after Modi's announcement and hope it would give the National Democratic Alliance an advantage over the grand alliance of the Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress in the assembly polls.