NEW DELHI: President Draupadi Murmu has recommended that a bill seeking special financial assistance to Bihar, introduced by RJD lawmaker in Rajya Sabha AD Singh, should be considered by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Singh had introduced the bill as a private member’s bill in the Upper House in September, pushing a key demand of both RJD and JD(U). Both the parties have been demanding “special status” for the state after its bifurcation over a decade ago, arguing that Bihar has lost a significant amount of revenue to Jharkhand.
The Centre has refused to accord special category status to any state based on the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, although Odisha and Andhra Pradesh too have made a similar plea.
The RJD MP, while making the demand of his party, flagged Bihar’s backwardness on multiple parameters.
After releasing the caste survey, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had demanded a special status for the state, while announcing arguing that there are over 94 lakh families with monthly income of up to Rs 6,000.
He had then announced financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to each such family. Now in this sequence, the President’s recommendation on Singh’s bill is another new hope through which Bihar can get special financial assistance.
In 2018, the Centre had stated, made its stand clear in Parliament. “Following the recommendations of 14th Finance Commission, special category states cease to exist and thus, no special category status has been granted to any state. However, the central government has agreed to give a special assistance to the state of Andhra Pradesh to make up for the additional central share the state might have received during 2015-16 to 2019-20, if the funding of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) would have been shared at the ratio of 90:10 between the Centre and the state.”
