Nitish trashes Modi's package, says it's only 'repackaging'

Bihar CM also assailed Modi's manner of announcing the economic package, contending it looked like it was 'an auction of Bihar'

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today rubbished Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election-eve Rs 1.25 lakh crore special package as "repackaging of old projects" and took him on for branding the state as BIMARU.

Kumar also assailed Modi's manner of announcing the economic package, contending it looked like it was "an auction of Bihar".

"How many times will you slaughter a chicken. He has repackaged old projects," Kumar told reporters, barely an hour after Modi had left the state after announcing the package for state's economic revival.

The bonhomie on display in the morning when Kumar had gone to receive Modi at the airport had vanished as he tore into the Prime Minister's claims about building a 'naya Bihar'.

"He talks about cooperative federalism but does exactly the opposite. He will humiliate the state government, call it incompetent... What kind of cooperative federalism is this?" he said.

On PM's remark that Kumar had pleaded with the erstwhile UPA government for a Rs 12,000 crore package and also Modi's "arrogant" barb against him, the Bihar Chief Minister said,"He calls me a 'Yachak' (supplicant) and an arrogant man at the same time. This is contradictory."

Kumar once again trashed Modi's BIMARU remark to describe Bihar.

"Bihar government has built 66,500 km roads, over 5000 bridges, brought down school dropout rate to 1.5 per cent from 12.5 per cent and footfall at primary health centres has gone up to 11,000 every month from mere 39 in 2005," he said, rejecting the laggard tag and presenting the picture of a turnaround under his stewardship.

Rebutting Modi's remark that Bihar government had failed to expend previous two packages of Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 12,000 crore provided by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and the UPA dispensation, Kumar said, those were to be implemented by the Central agencies and he cannot be faulted for it.

"Mr PM perhaps is not aware that works under these packages were to be done by Central agencies...So the charge of being laggard should be directed against the Central agencies and not the state government," he said.

Kumar said Bihar had always been insisting on grant of special status and not financial packages in order to attract investments to give a thrust to economic activity.

"Are those states which have been accorded special status BIMARU. Special category status is given to states to make them attractive destinations for investors," he said.