Bihar cabinet clears special status demand, Rs 2.5-lakh cr allocation for poor families

A government statement said about 94 lakh families would be given Rs 2 lakh each in instalments for self-employment of a member each. Besides, 63,850 landless families will be given Rs 1 lakh each to buy land to raise home. These families will also be given Rs 1.2 lakh each to construct homes. About 39 lakh families living in thatched houses would be given Rs 1.2 lakh each to build a home. Under an existing livelihood scheme, a poor family will now be given Rs 2 lakh instead of the earlier Rs 1 lakh.

The state has assessed that the total cost to be incurred on all these schemes in five years comes to Rs 2.5 lakh crore.

The cabinet also passed a proposal to demand special category status from the Centre. The government statement said: “Since a huge amount is required for the entire exercise in five years, we demand the Centre to give us special category status so that we can implement these schemes in less time.”

The state government recalled that it had been demanding special category status since 2010 and a rally was also organised to press the demand in 2012 in Patna and in 2013 in New Delhi. The then UPA government had formed the Raghuram Rajan Committee to look into such demands. The committee submitted its report in September 2013 but there had been no word on Bihar getting special status. The state government took up its demand with the government in May 2017 and again passed a similar proposal to reiterate this.

Nitish has been seeking the special category tag for Bihar since at least 2007. In a special category state, the Centre-state funding of centrally-sponsored schemes is split in the ratio of 90:10, much more favourable than the 60:40 or 80:20 splits in other (non-SCS) states.

The Constitution does not provide for any state to receive special treatment compared to others; however, for a range of reasons including historical disadvantage, difficult or hilly terrain, nature of population (low density or a large share of tribals), strategic location along the border, economic or infrastructural backwardness, etc., the Centre has over the decades extended special assistance to some states.

From 1969 onward, a body called the National Development Council (NDC) — which used to be a part of the now defunct Planning Commission of India — recommended SCS status for 11 states: eight from the Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.

After the government accepted the recommendations of the Fourteenth Finance Commission in 2015, however, the concept of SCS effectively disappeared. The NITI Aayog, which has replaced the Planning Commission, has no power to allocate funds — and therefore, the discretion that the ruling party at the Centre had to dole out special favours to states through the Plan panel, no longer exists.

States such as Bihar, Odisha, and Jharkhand have, however, persisted with the demand. Andhra Pradesh too has claimed SCS as fulfilment of the promise that it says was made by the previous UPA government when the state was bifurcated in 2014.