The Centre on Friday ruled out any special category status for Bihar saying there was no policy for according such a status to any State anymore.
Union Minister of State for Planning Rao Inderjit Singh made this statement in the Lok Sabha during Question Hour after repeated requests from MPs belonging to Odisha, Bihar and Rajasthan for special category status for their respective States.
He said the 14th Finance Commission had not made any distinction between special and general category States in the recommendation of horizontal distribution among the States.
With Assembly elections scheduled in Bihar later this year, Chief Minister >Nitish Kumar has renewed the long-standing demand for special category status.
When expelled Rashtriya Janata Dal member Rajesh Ranjan (Pappu Yadav) sought to pin the Minister down to a specific promise made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on special category status to Bihar, Mr. Singh replied: “Bihar and Odisha want such a status, but we cannot give them this status. What is under consideration is special Central assistance but no decision has been taken as yet.”
In this year’s budget, the Union Finance Minister had announced special assistance to Bihar and West Bengal, similar to that given to Andhra Pradesh after its bifurcation. An initial allocation from this was made to Bihar over a month ago, according to the Finance Ministry.
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