The euphoria around “backward” or “special” category status for Bihar is ephemeral. It will continue to hit the headlines for a while with a specific purpose of which both the Congress-led UPA and state chief minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar are aware.
News around the issue is helping both the Congress, which wants to give a sense of stability at the Centre against the backdrop of an annoyed SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Mr Kumar, who, though he knows that special category status can only be accorded with the consent of the NDC of which all the CMs are members, has raked up the issue for public consumption.
Government sources said though there is a proposal to allocate higher Central funds (`12,000 crore) to Bihar in the 12th Plan period (2012-2017) under the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF), chances of the state getting the same are remote. “One year of the Plan period has already lapsed. In the first year (2012-13) Bihar was given `1,400 crore under BRGF and another approximately `2,000 crore is expected to be allocated. The remainder, `8,600 crore would be left to be given to the state in the last three years of the Plan period. But, since the total budgetary allocation under BRGF for the entire country for 2012-13 was `6,000 crore, and this year (2013-14) it is `6,500 crore, it would be extremely difficult for the Centre to give the rest of the amount to Bihar out of a projected average amount of `20,000 crore for the next three years,” they said.
Sources said even if the Planning Commission draws up a proposal to affix the “special” tag to Bihar and takes it to the NDC, there is very little chance that the other CMs would agree unanimously.