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JDU seeks special financial package from central government for Bihar | India News
NEW DELHI: BJP-led NDA ally Janata Dal (United) on Saturday demanded the central government to grant special status or special financial package to Bihar, with a resolution to this effect being passed at the party’s national convention.
Besides, the party also sought strict action against the accused in the paper leak case and called for a strong law to be passed in Parliament to curb irregularities in examinations.
After the meeting, JD(U) leader Neeraj Kumar said, “Two important proposals were approved today during the party’s national executive meeting. Party national president CM Nitish Kumar decided to make Sanjay Jha the working president of the party. It was also decided that JD(U) will remain with the NDA.”
Senior party leader KC Tyagi also said that the JD(U) national executive meeting has decided to move the high court against the Patna high court’s stay on caste reservation.
Tyagi said, “He (CM Nitish Kumar) announced before the national executive that he will now always be part of the NDA alliance. We will go to the Supreme Court regarding the reservation held by the Bihar High Court.
“Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Jha has been appointed national executive chairman. We will continue to fight for special status and economic package,” he also said.
What is the special category status?The concept was the brainchild of social scientist Dhananjay Ramchandra Gadgil, vice-chairman of the Planning Commission (now Niti Ayog), who formulated the Planning Commission’s third five-year plan.
According to the Gadgil Formula, special category status is granted if a state has the following characteristics:
- Mountainous and difficult terrain
- Low population density or significant tribal population
- Strategic location across borders
- Economic and infrastructural delay
- Unviable nature of state finances
The idea was to help disadvantaged states. The status was first granted to Assam, Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir and later extended to Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand. The last state to receive special category status was Telangana. The rationale is to help states with a low resource base that are unable to mobilize resources for development.
However, the Center had earlier said that it would not accept demands for ‘special category status’ from any state, given the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendation to abolish it. The SCS was introduced in 1969 to benefit certain backward states with mountainous terrains, strategic international borders and economic and infrastructural backwardness.