In Lok Sabha, BJP leader and former Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy flagged the ‘backwardness’ of Bihar and asked the government to spell out policies to attract investment. He spoke to Liz Mathew Why are you raising the issue? NITI Aayog has published a document that says Bihar is India’s poorest state. I said the country cannot grow without developing Bihar’s 12 crore population. What was your demand? The CM (Nitsh Kumar) has also accepted that Bihar is a backward state, hence we should be given backward status. If Bihar needs the status of a backward state, there must be niti (policy), nivesh (investment). What kind of policy do you want? A policy for youth, infra, IT and greenfield airports, for women’s mortality, education, child health, etc. So I am demanding that the state bring a policy paper on each of these and then come back to the Centre on the backwardness issue. But you raised it in Parliament. Yes… because it’s a NITI Aayog report which has placed the state (at the bottom). In Lok Sabha, BJP and JD(U) members could not agree on implementing central projects? Under Phase 3 of the Centre’s rural roads scheme, 6,000 km of roads have been sanctioned. But Bihar has only given a proposal for 1,300 km. The Centre was saying the proposals have not come and we are unable to sanction money. Who is to be blamed?
