Nitish Cabinet approves resolution seeking special status for Bihar

The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar upped the ante on the Chief Minister’s long-standing demand for grant of special status to the state with a resolution to the effect on Wednesday being passed by the Cabinet.

He also said that the fresh demand was necessitated by findings of the caste survey his government carried out in the state.

Kumar said that while the rise in percentage of population of the deprived castes has led to increase in the quotas for SCs, STs and OBCs from 50 to 65 per cent, his government also planned to undertake a number of welfare measures for the benefit of “94 lakh families”, which according to the caste survey lived in abject poverty.

He also said that his government had been providing an assistance of Rs 60,000 to landless families for purchasing land but has now decided to raise the sum to Rs one lakh which would benefit 63,850 such households identified in the survey. The JD(U) leader, who is the state’s longest-serving Chief minister, also recounted that he had been raising the demand for special status “since 2010” and rallies to press the demand were addressed by him here in 2012 and a year later at the Ram Lila Maidan in Delhi.

Last week, he had threatened to launch a state-wide agitation if the demand for special category status was not met.