Corruption major bottleneck in Bihar: Nitish

Government schools would be opened in such buildings,he said.

Seeking the Opposition’s cooperation in his “war against corruption”,Kumar said action against those found guilty were being initiated under the new Anti-Corruption Act.

“The decision to bring the corrupt persons to the book has the sanction of the people of Bihar… Action against the corrupt would be initiated without vendetta,” he said.

Pitching for special category status to Bihar,Kumar said an unanimous resolution in this regard was adopted by both Houses of the legislature way back in 2006 and since then,he had written several letters to the prime minister seeking appointment to discuss the issue.

But the PM was yet to give the appointment,he said.

“No government at the Centre can last long ignoring the interests of resurgent Bihar,” he said.

The chief minister asked the MLAs to put pressure for according the special category status — a demand that he has been pressing for the past couple of years.

The special category status would attract private investments to the state since the investors would be entitled to several concessions,including concession in central taxes.

Kumar refuted Leader of Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui’s allegations that over Rs 188 crore which the government had received as contributions from the legislators for taking up relief measures in Kosi region after the August 2008 deluge was lying with SBI and Bank Of India.

In fact Chief Minister’s Relief Fund had received Rs 245 crore in one year out of which Rs 227 crore were spent on running mega relief camps,setting up of flood-cum-community centres and provding utensils to flood victims,he said.

As the Centre did not provide special package for rehabilitating the flood victims,the state government had approached World Bank to provide dwellings to the people whose houses were washed away. ”I am committed to the development of Kosi region,” he said.

Kumar also refuted Siddiqui’s claim that there was a difference of just a lakh of votes between the NDA and RJD-LJP combine in the just concluded assembly polls.

He said while NDA polled over 1.13 crore votes which was over 39 per cent of total votes polled in the state,the RJD-LJP combine got about 74.10 lakh votes which was 25.58 per cent of the votes polled.

Congress,which contested all the 243 seats polled 24.3 lakh votes and won four seats,could corner only 8.37 per cent of the votes.

Kumar,however,said he was quoting the figures not to belittle the Opposition. ”Everybody should contribute in making Bihar a developed state.”