JD(U) slams government for refusing special status to Bihar

The Janata Dal (United) on Saturday slammed the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government for refusing special status to Bihar and said that the Prime Minister had promised the same to the people of the state to get votes during the Lok Sabha elections.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked for votes from the people of Bihar by saying that he will give a special status to the state at the time of Lok Sabha elections. We used to request the UPA government to give Bihar a special status. We had also given a memorandum to then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh for the same. Bihar will develop if it gets a special status, not by getting a special package," said JD(U) leader K.C Tyagi.

On Friday, the Centre had ruled out any special category status for Bihar saying there was no policy for according such a status to any state anymore. According to the government, the 14th Finance Commission had not made any distinction between special and general category states in the recommendation of horizontal distribution among the states.