Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will address his supporters here today to demand special status for his state, culminating a year-long campaign for more financial help and concessions from the union government.
Trains have been bringing in thousands of Janata Dal (United) activists to the capital in the last few days for Kumar's 'Adhikar' rally at the Ramlila grounds, where other party leaders will also be speaking.
Talking to reporters after his arrival in Delhi yesterday, Kumar said that the JD(U) rally is an attempt to get the rights of Bihar, which will also benefit other backward states.
He said it is not any display of power but an attempt to get the right of backward state.
Stating that the fight for special status for Bihar has reached a decisive stage, Kumar had earlier said that faster development of backward states would help India achieve inclusive growth.
In his budget speech on February 28, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said, "It may be more relevant to use measures like distance of the state from the national average under criteria such as per capita income, literacy and other human development indicators. I propose to evolve new criteria and reflect them in future planning and devolution of funds."
Welcoming the announcement, Kumar had said in Patna it was a victory in-principle for Bihar in view of its consistent demand for grant of special status.
"Our repeated efforts in the direction to revise existing criteria to decide new parameters for identifying backward states like Bihar have been acknowledged in Union budget," Kumar added.
