PATNA: Nitish Kumar's cabinet on Wednesday passed a resolution demanding the grant of special category status to Bihar in the wake of a caste-based survey conducted in the state, which showed the state was home to 94 lakh poor families. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar disclosed the decision of the cabinet in this regard on his social media platform. The cabinet approved the proposal demanding special category status for the state.
“The state wants to launch schemes for the betterment of about 94 lakh poor families for which Rs.2.5 lakh crores is required. If special category status is granted by the Centre, the state would be able to fulfill the poor families,” he said. He said the welfare schemes for the poor families would be implemented in five years as the amount is huge.
“But if the Centre helps us, we will be able to do the same in much less time,” Nitish posted on his social media account.
बिहार को विशेष राज्य का दर्जा प्रदान करने की पुनः मांग की। देश में पहली बार बिहार में जाति आधारित गणना का काम कराया गया है। जाति आधारित गणना के सामाजिक, आर्थिक एवं शैक्षणिक स्थिति के आंकड़ों के आधार पर अनुसूचित जाति के आरक्षण सीमा को 16 प्रतिशत से बढ़ाकर 20 प्रतिशत, अनुसूचित…
— Nitish Kumar (@NitishKumar) November 22, 2023The JD(U) supremo has been raising the demand for special category status since 2010. Even rallies were separately held at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on November 24, 2012, and at Ram Leela Maidan in Delhi on March 17, 2013, in support of the demand.
Without taking the name of Congress, Nitish said that Bihar's demand for special category status was never looked into by the then government at the Centre. Bihar chief minister disclosed that the then Union government had formed the Raghuram Rajan committee at the request of the former.
The report of the Raghuram Rajan committee was published in September 2013. “The then union government did nothing on this report. In May 2017 again, the Bihar government urged the Centre to accept the state's demand of special category status with a view to all-round development of the state,” he clarified.
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Nitish also explained how reservation quotas for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and Extremely Backward Classes were increased on the basis of the caste-based survey data. He revealed that about 94 lakh poor families have been found in the state, according to the caste-based survey data, which was made public on October 2 on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary.
The state government has already proposed to give Rs.2 lakh each to the poor families belonging to all sections to make them economically self-reliant. Nitish Kumar had earlier announced that he would launch a state-wide movement if the Centre does not grant special category status to Bihar at the earliest. Nitish had said Bihar needs special category status in order to move forward.
“The demand for a special category status will be heard in every nook and corner of the state during the movement,” he had said. Moving a step further Nitish had declared that those who do not support the demand are not interested in Bihar’s development.
Meanwhile, the Bihar government has sent its recommendation to the Centre requesting the latter to hike the reservation quota for SCs, STs, OBCs, and EBCs at the national level on the pattern of Bihar. On November 21, the state government published a gazette notification in this regard after Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar signed the Bills concerned.
