PM blaming Bihar Govt for failure of central agencies: Nitish

PAROO: In the continuing war of words between Congress leaders and Bihar government, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of trying to shift the blame on the state government for "failure" of central agencies on the fund utilisation issue.

"It is unfortunate that a person like Singh is placing distorted facts before the people and seeking to blame the NDA government for the failure of central agencies in utilisation of central assistance," he told an election meeting here.

Kumar said the erstwhile NDA Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee had in 2002 decided to provide a special package of Rs 1000 crore under the Samvikas Yojana every year to compensate the losses incurred by Bihar after the mineral-rich plateau region went to Jharkhand.

He said that the provisions to this effect was made in the Bihar Reorganisation Act (BRA) and the Planning Commission was asked to implement the schemes through central agencies. Bihar Government had no hand in it, he said.

"The Prime Minister should correct his statement that the special provision of Rs 1000 crore every year was made from 2004. It was actually made from 2002 and Congress has nothing to take credit for this," he said.