Nitish ‘closes’ chapter on Mahajan’s Bihar remark

In light of Mahajan’s complaint that his remarks were distorted and the JD(U) leaders should have checked with him first, the Bihar chief minister played safe and said, ‘‘The matter is over. The chapter should be closed. I came to know about it (Mahajan’s remarks) only through media and I also reacted through it.’’

At the same time, he underlined that there should be no restriction on people from Bihar working outside the state. ‘‘Because there is so much unemployment, people of Bihar go everywhere. Everyone has a right to earn his livelihood anywhere in the country. We want to create enough job opportunities in the state so that people prefer to remain there. But there should be no obstruction in their quest for education or employment’’, he said.

Bihar’s deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Modi — who was also felicitated at the function — said Mahajan had clarified to him that he had not said anything to hurt people from Bihar.

Asked whether he was hopeful that the Centre grant Bihar special status, Kumar said, ‘‘No one we spoke to rejected the demand.’’

President Abdul Kalam, he said, will visit Bihar for two days at the end of the month. The President had accepted the invitation to address the convocation ceremony of Patna and Mithila universities on December 29 and 30 respectively. He may visit the state again in February and ‘‘will give us suggestions and guidance on the vision document,’’ Nitish said.

Kumar said his priority was to overturn the present ‘‘pitiable’’ condition of Bihar at the moment and not just depend on central assistance. ‘‘We don’t believe in just crying and asking but our machinery has to be made deserving. Earlier, every plan size used to be downsized but now we want to increase it. We want to focus on infrastructure, education and health’’.

He also had plans to attract NRI investment to the state since there was a huge Bihari diaspora abroad. ‘‘I sat with officials today to discuss details about sending a high-level delegation to the NRI conference in Hyderabad next month, ’’ he said.

Law and order had already begun to improve in Bihar, Kumar said.