CM Nitish raised the demand for giving special state status to Bihar in the meeting of Eastern Regional Council

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, citing the poverty and backwardness of the state revealed by the Socio-Economic Survey report, once again demanded to give special status to the state.

Nitish Kumar said in the 26th Eastern Regional Council meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in ‘Samvad’ at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat here that he has been demanding special status for Bihar since 2010. Bihar is a very historical state, despite continuous development, Bihar is far below the national average in the parameters of development. Bihar fulfills all the conditions for special state status. Now even the figures of poverty and backwardness in caste based census support this. He told Shah, “We hope that you will definitely think about giving special status to Bihar.”

The Chief Minister said that many issues are to be discussed between the Central and State Governments in today’s meeting. He wanted the central government to conduct a census on caste basis. He was striving for this from the beginning. For this, in the year 2019 and 2020, a proposal was passed unanimously in the Bihar Legislature and sent to the Central Government. He then met Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with representatives of all parties. No consideration was given to this by the Central Government. The state government has conducted caste based census from its own resources and its figures have also been released. CM said that according to the data, the total population of Bihar is 13 crore 7 lakh 25 thousand 310, out of which 53 lakh 72 thousand 22 people are living outside Bihar and 12 crore 53 lakh 53 thousand are living in the state.

In the caste based census, backward class population was found to be 27.12 percent, extremely backward class was 36.01 percent, scheduled caste was 19.65, scheduled tribe was 1.68 percent and general category was 15.52 percent. On the basis of these data, with the consent of all parties including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it was decided to increase their participation in reservation for the social upliftment of all the weaker sections of the society.