Sushil Modi hits out at Nitish

Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi today slammed Nitish Kumar over the issue of special status to the state, claiming that an inter-ministerial panel had rejected the notion two years ago and the Chief Minister was "misleading" the people of the state.
"Kumar is misleading the people of Bihar by blaming the NDA government for not according special status to the state .... Was not the notion of special status emphatically rejected by Raghuram Rajan-led inter-ministerial panel two years ago during UPA rule?" he asked.
Instead of blaming the NDA government, Kumar should ask Congress president Sonia Gandhi why her party's government had rejected special status demand by Bihar, he said in a statement.

The NDA had on the other hand loosened its purse string for development of Bihar with Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing Rs 1.65 lakh crore special package for the state last month, he said.
Moreover, the Centre will provide Rs 4.08 lakh crore to Bihar from the divisible pool of tax resources on the basis of 14th Finance Commission recommendations over the next five years, he said.
The funds made available to Bihar under the two heads was much more than funds which accrued to it under special status, he claimed.
In addition, the Centre has provided 30 per cent income tax depreciation for private investors in 21 districts of the state and will also give about Rs 24,000 crore to local bodies over the next five years.

He trashed Kumar's charge that the special package announced by the Prime Minister was "repackaging of old schemes" and demanded that the chief minister explain which projects under the special package were old ones.