Centre will have to consider special status for Bihar - Nitish

Buoyed by reports that the Centre was favourbly disposed to consider incentives for Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today exuded confidence that it will have to consider his special status demand as it has been 'articulated on solid reasons'.
"There is strength in our logic that the Centre should grant special status to Bihar in view of its economic backwardness," he told reporters while reacting to media reports in this regard.
"In the end, the Centre will have to consider the special status demand for Bihar in view of our reasoning for the same," Kumar said.
The chief minister, however, downplayed reports which claimed the Centre may change the criteria for grant of special status to the states to accomodate Bihar's aspiration before the next general elections and said there was nothing new in the reports.

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram had spoken about revisiting the criteria for special status in his budget speech in a follow-up action to similar pronouncements in the economic survey report, Kumar said and described the reports in this regard as consistent with the Centre's stand.