Patna, August 08: With an eye on the coming Bihar polls, the Janata Dal(U) on Saturday demanded a sub-plan providing for a dedicated fund for the development of Muslim-dominated areas. The party’s national executive, which began its two-day session here, adopted a resolution to this effect.
“Muslims constitute 13.4 per cent of our population,” the JD(U) said, stressing the fact that “a majority of them are poor and socially alienated.” “The JD(U) demands that a sub-plan should be formulated for Muslims along the lines of the sub-plan for tribals to provide a dedicated fund for the Muslim-dominated areas,” the resolution said, adding the party “also demands an implementation of recommendations of the Rangnath Mishra committee recommendations.” The JD(U) prescribed the Bhagalpur-model for the rehabilitation of riot-victims to other states.
The party resolution also called for “more autonomy” for Jammu and Kashmir and opposed the use of military to tackle Maoist violence. The party attributed the Naxalite problem to a “gross violation of right to life, acute poverty and unhindered exploitation of people.” The JD(U) suggested an all-party meeting to build a consensus to find a political solution.
Charging the Centre with an encroachment of the rights of states, the national executive authorised Nitish Kumar to convene a meeting of CMs of non-Congress states to discuss decentralisation and dilution of powers of the states.
Party general secretary K C Tyagi maintained there were no internal differences on the Women’s Reservation Bill which Kumar has backed. “Please ask Nitishji when he meets you tomorrow,” Tyagi told reporters. He said the alliance with the BJP would stay and the Bihar elections would be fought under the leadership of Nitish.
——Agencies