Nitish indulging in 'letter war' over special package: Sushil Modi

Patna: Claiming that Rs 1.25 lakh crore special package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will change the shape of Bihar, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Thursday charged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of 'misleading' people of the poll-bound state by indulging in 'letter war' over the PM's package.

"Nitish Kumar's letter to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is nothing but an attempt to mislead the people of Bihar on the special package of Rs 1.65 crore (Rs 1.25 lakh crore package announced in recent Bihar rally in addition to Rs 40657 crore announced previously) announced by the Prime Minister for the poll-bound state," he said in a statement.

Castigating the Chief Minister for his negative attitude towards the Centre by trashing the special package, the former deputy chief minister said that it was clear from the senior JD(U) leader's attitude that development of Bihar was not possible till such a government comes to power in the state which could work in tandem with the Central government.

The BJP leader also alleged that the Chief Minister was running down the special package for Bihar after getting hassled with the Prime Minister's five-time visit to the state recently.

Kumar used to charge Modi with forgetting Bihar by not visiting it even once after coming to power at the Centre in May last year, but once the Prime Minister started coming over regularly in recent months, the Chief Minister has got hassled and was trying to run down the special package, he said.

The senior BJP leader also took the chief minister to

task for claiming that the state will suffer a loss of Rs 55,000 crore under devolution of its share in central taxes over the next five years on the basis of recommendations of 14th Finance Commission, but the fact of the matter was that the poll-bound state will get Rs 2.15 lakh crore more than what it had got under the 13th Finance Commission recommendations.

The former deputy chief minister, who had held finance portfolio for eight years during the erstwhile NDA government, asked the Chief Minister to confirm or deny whether Bihar will not be the second highest recipient of devolution under central taxes behind Uttar Pradesh and three times more than Gujarat and two times more than Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

"Is it not true that Bihar's share in devolution of central taxes over the next five years will be Rs one lakh crore more than West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra?" Modi asked the Chief Minister.

On Kumar's charge that the PM's package was repackaging of old schemes, the BJP leader trashed the charge saying that if those old schemes were sanctioned in 2007, then why all those schemes were not implemented and whether the Chief Minister will take the blame for it.

Alleging that the senior JD(U) leader was making baseless allegations against the Centre by writing a "ridiculous letter" to the Union Finance Minister, denouncing the special package as a pre-poll sop, Modi claimed that Nitish Kumar was hiding his own non-performance by indulging in 'letter war' with the Centre.