Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday took lightly the speculations that he might be shifted to Delhi in a new role soon or assumes the membership of Rajya Sabha and said, “I came to Bihar from Delhi (in 2005). Now from here I will go to Ashram.”
On the allotment of the house in Delhi he said such accommodations are granted to the States by the Centre as per their quota and it was nothing unusual. “This house has not been allotted to me,” he claimed. The CM also denied that Bihar’s interests were ignored in the Budget, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar claimed the State’s expectations were not only met through the share in central taxation, but “we got more than our expectations”, up to Rs 76,000 crore.
Talking to media people after holding Lok Samwad programme held after a long gap, Nitish said a lot of works were either going on or approved for infrastructure development mainly roads, bridges, highways, civil aviation and power. Several Union Ministers visited here recently and held detailed talks on plenty of projects, he said and added that new airport is planned at Bihta for which land was being acquired apart from the extension of the airport complex in Patna. However, the CM could not give a direct reply to question raised on his criticism of the Union Budgets for three consecutive years for not granting special status to Bihar. “It is now four years and only one year left before election; so no justification of mounting any criticism or digging out old issues,” he stated. Till last Budget the CM was highly critical of Centre for ignoring Bihar and doing little to complete the incomplete projects.
On Z plus security cover granted by the Home Ministry, the CM said many CMs were availing this cover but he was not granted even after being CM for over 12 years. He also explained that Z plus means six security men instead of two while visiting Delhi this apart from the established protocol for the CMs outside their respective States.
Nitish confirmed his proposed visit to Japan in this month. He said invitation from Japan has come and he has also been intimated by the Ministry of External Affairs. “Programme has still not been finalised by the MSE but tentatively it will take place in February,” he said.