New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar yesterday accused the Congress-led coalition government at the centre of being indifferent to the state.
According to Nitish, Bihar's National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is not yet getting the expected cooperation from the federal government in its bid to develop one of the least developed states of the country until a few years ago.
"It would have been a different story had we got full support of the central [federal] government," Nitish said during his first interaction with the national media after his government retained power in the state for the second consecutive term with more than two-third majority in November elections.
Without naming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and her parliamentarian son Rahul Gandhi, who accused Bihar government of not utilising funds provided by the centre in their election rallies, Nitish said nobody believed them in Bihar.
"People of Bihar did not like the tone and tenor of the leaders who had gone from Delhi. They replied to their allegations in the best possible democratic way," he said.
The Bihar chief minister, who was in town to attend the chief ministers' conference, put the onus on the central government to overcome the shortage of funds his government faces in its development projects.
The Bihar chief minister hailed as the development-oriented chief minister talked about Bihar's limitations saying that being landlocked it cannot compete with coastal states.
"We don't have mines or minerals which have gone to Jharkhand. We are just left with productive land. Bihar is the ideal destination for agricultural based industries and food processing industries.
"We have investment offers worth over Rs. 100 billion in ethanol and coal-based power industries which have not fructified due to lack of policy support from the central government," Nitish said.
Parliament
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is the tallest leader of the Janata Dal (Untied), yesterday indicated that the upcoming budget session of Parliament, starting on February 21, may not be a smooth affair.
According to him, there is no possibility of the opposition backing out from its demand for the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the telecom scam, leading to arrest of former telecom minister A. Raja yesterday.
According to Nitish, Bihar's National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is not yet getting the expected cooperation from the federal government in its bid to develop one of the least developed states of the country until a few years ago.
"It would have been a different story had we got full support of the central [federal] government," Nitish said during his first interaction with the national media after his government retained power in the state for the second consecutive term with more than two-third majority in November elections.
Without naming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and her parliamentarian son Rahul Gandhi, who accused Bihar government of not utilising funds provided by the centre in their election rallies, Nitish said nobody believed them in Bihar.
"People of Bihar did not like the tone and tenor of the leaders who had gone from Delhi. They replied to their allegations in the best possible democratic way," he said.
The Bihar chief minister, who was in town to attend the chief ministers' conference, put the onus on the central government to overcome the shortage of funds his government faces in its development projects.
The Bihar chief minister hailed as the development-oriented chief minister talked about Bihar's limitations saying that being landlocked it cannot compete with coastal states.
"We don't have mines or minerals which have gone to Jharkhand. We are just left with productive land. Bihar is the ideal destination for agricultural based industries and food processing industries.
"We have investment offers worth over Rs. 100 billion in ethanol and coal-based power industries which have not fructified due to lack of policy support from the central government," Nitish said.
Parliament
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is the tallest leader of the Janata Dal (Untied), yesterday indicated that the upcoming budget session of Parliament, starting on February 21, may not be a smooth affair.
According to him, there is no possibility of the opposition backing out from its demand for the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the telecom scam, leading to arrest of former telecom minister A. Raja yesterday.
