New Delhi: After Janata Dal (United) leader Dinesh Chandra Yadav's demand for a special status for the state of Bihar on Monday, Leader of Opposition in Bihar state assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, on Thursday said that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has been raising the special status issue since long.
Yadav said that RJD MP Manoj Jha has already raised the issue in the parliament, and that the party, too, has collectively been making the demand for a long time.
"We had 22 MPs in UPA-1. During that time, Bihar was able to get a package of Rs 1,44,000 crore under the leadership of Lalu Prasad Yadav", the RJD leader said.
Noting that there are currently 39 JDU and BJP MPs in Bihar who represent the state in the parliament, Yadav said that they are still not able to get the central government to provide any benefits for the state.
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"Nitish Kumar has been the chief minister of Bihar for the last 16 years, and even at this stage he is saying that Bihar is a backward state. He is seeking help from his ally, BJP. The NDA government is there both at the Centre and in Bihar, and still the Chief Minister is not able to get Bihar the special status", Yadav further said.
Stating that the current administration was not able to provide youth in the state with jobs, could not fix the law and order situation, and failed to set up industries in Bihar, the RJD leader said Kumar as a chief minister had failed on all fronts.
The special status issue has recently been a bone of contention between the BJP and the JDU, the two ruling parties running a coalition government at the moment.
JDU's Dinesh Chandra Yadav, on Monday, took up the issue, saying that the status would translate to rapid development in Bihar.
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Highlighting the funding ratio between Centre and state, Yadav had said every scheme implemented right now has 60% of its funds from Centre and 40% by the state, which he said would change if Bihar got a special status, as the latter scenario would see 90% of the scheme funding coming from Centre and only 10% from the state administration.
