Special status category to Bihar doesn't arise: Sushil Modi

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today asserted that the issue of according "special category status" to Bihar did not arise as the very concept had been rejected by both the Raghuram Rajan Committee and the Finance Commission.
"The very concept of 'special category status' was dismissed by the Raghuram Rajan Committee. And the 14th Finance Commission has completely abolished the system of a special category state. The special category status cannot be accorded to any state even if the government wants to give it," Modi told reporters here.
Modi was replying to a query whether a special category status for Bihar would figure in the Union Budget.

The central government had in 2013 formed a committee, headed by Raghuram Rajan, the then Chief Economic Adviser, to finalise the new criteria to determine backwardness of states for granting special category status.
The previous UPA government had constituted the Committee on the repeated demands from Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government and other states for according them a special category status.
Further, Modi said, the Narendra Modi government at the Centre had given Rs 1.65 lakh crore special package to Bihar, which gave more to the state than what it could have got under special category.

"Through Rs 1.65 lakh crore special package, which is being implemented in the state, the Centre has given more to the state and that is why Nitish Kumar has forgotten it (special category status) also," said Modi, who was accompanied by party leaders and former Bihar minister Renu Kushwaha and former Bihar DGP Ashish Ranjan Sinha.

Modi appreciated the Centre for disbandment of the Planning Commission, doing away with the Five Year Plan, classification of plan and non-plan expenditure, advancing the presentation of Budget to February 1 from British tradition of presenting it on the last day of the month, etc.
The former Bihar finance minister, said advancement of the presentation of Budget to February 1 would enable government departments to start spending from April 1. Earlier, the actual expenditure of government departments used to start from May-June, he added.
When asked to comment on Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav's invitation to the Bollywood, he said those who stopped the release of 'Deswa' and delayed the release of Gangajal are now inviting Bollywood film director Sanjay Leela Bhansali to Bihar.

Further, Modi has condemned the assault on filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali during shooting of his film Padmavati in Jaipur.