Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hit back at the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, on Tuesday for questioning the State’s development on the power and sanitation fronts.
“All his figures for Bihar are wrong,” Mr. Kumar said.
Mr. Modi had said only 23 per cent households had toilets and only 16 per cent had power connection.
“He [Mr. Modi] should know that Bihar was the first State to implement the Central scheme, Lohiya Swakshata Abhiyan (Lohia Cleanliness Campaign), for Below the Poverty Line (BPL) families. Bihar was the first State to start a toilet scheme for Above the Poverty Line (APL) families too,” Mr. Kumar said.
Power situation“When he [Mr. Modi] started talking about the power situation, the response [from the crowd] was poor. We began from a zero-megawatt power situation. Can Bihar be compared with rich States? In areas where there is an electric pole and connection, power is supplied for 16-24 hours,” he said.
Talking about the non-Congress, non-BJP front that was formed recently, Mr. Kumar said it was causing much worry to his opponents.
