Patna, September 02: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s wishlist to the Centre is getting longer by the day in spite of the UPA government’s apparent reluctance to fulfil his demands.
Nitish met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his 7, Race Course Road bungalow in New Delhi on Tuesday, apparently renewing his demand for adequate flood and drought packages for the state.
Undeterred by his failure to secure a decent Kosi package from the Centre even a year after the devastating floods, Nitish was optimistic-placing one demand after another.
He reminded the PM on Tuesday that the state government had submitted a proposal for Rs 14,808.59 crore for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Kosi belt. The Centre had approved Rs 497.35 crore initially and Rs 117 crore later.
Nitish said this was unfair to the people affected by a national calamity. He said his government had submitted a memorandum for Rs 23,071 crore, for tackling drought, to Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar.
On Monday, he met railway minister Mamata Banerjee in New Delhi and requested her to hand over the 9-km Patna-Digha railway line, which runs through the heart of the state capital, to the state government.
Nitish wanted to build a four-lane road there to ease the flow of traffic which is likely to increase after the completion of the Digha-Paheleja Ghat rail-road bridge.
The CM wanted the Centre to expedite work on the Patna branch of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Nitish met Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to press for setting up a centre for a degree course in paramedical sciences and testing facilities for swine flu at Rajendra Medical Research Institute in Patna.
Nitish also sought early presidential assent to the Bihar Special Courts Bill 2009 which was passed by the state legislature and sent to the Centre for the President’s approval in March this year.
He met Union law minister Veerappa Moily in this regard a fortnight ago.
The Bill is meant for speedy trial of corruption cases against public servants.
The CM also urged the defence ministry to stop shifting the Army Service Corps (ASC) from Gaya to Bangalore.
He met defence minister A.K. Antony recently and told him that Bihar would provide separate land to the ministry for an Army Training Academy which it wanted to set up in place of the ASC. Last week, Nitish met Union minister for road transport and highways Kamal Nath to seek reimbursements worth Rs 711 crore which the state government had spent towards maintenance of highways in the absence of any central fund.
Ever since Nitish took over the reins in Bihar, his government has locked horns with the Centre over a number of issues.
But the UPA government has refrained from meeting most of his demands.
This has prompted his arch-rival and RJD president Lalu Prasad to quip that there is nobody in the Union ministry at present to plead Bihar’s case.
—Agencies