Ramesh shoots down Nitish's demand for special status

Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh says the state does need more funds but it also needs to learn 'proper utilisation of funds'

The Raghuram Rajan committee may have recommended special assistance to Bihar, but the UPA government seems to be in no hurry to award the same to the state. Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today asked the state government to improve its administrative capacity to utilise the funds given by New Delhi.

“Bihar has to become special to get special status,” Ramesh, who came to Patna to attend a Congress party function, said at a press conference, “For that Bihar has to do a lot. I agree that the state needs more funds for development as it is one of the most backward states in the country, but proper utilisation of the funds is also necessary.” He asked the state government to improve its administrative capacity for utilisation of the funds sent from New Delhi.

“The state has still a lot to do. For this, it has to focus on improving its administrative capacity. For example, the state has a potential to use almost Rs 7,000-8,000 crore per year under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), but it asks for only Rs 2,000-2,500 crore,” said the minister. Ramesh, also, refuted the claim of the state government that the central government does not provide money regularly.

“Bihar has been one of the most favoured states by the central government. Most of the development in the state was and is being financed by the central government. We have given large sum of money for rural roads in last couple of years to Bihar. Delays happen only because the state government cannot submit utilisation certificates on time. In some cases, state government officials have even submitted forged documents,” he added.

He also pointed out leakages in public distribution system (PDS) in the state. He said, “Under Food Security Act, the central government has decided to double state government's allocation of food grain and food subsidy. Bihar’s food subsidy will increase from Rs 5,500 crore to Rs 11,500 crore and allocation of food grain will increase from 28 lakh tonnes to 56 lakh tonnes.

“However, the state government has to increase the number of PDS shops in the state. It has to work hard to curb the leakages in its PDS, only then Bihar will be truly benefitted.”