I like the 003 crore added to reinforce arithmetical credibility. If that is how it adds up, so be it. More power to Bihari asmitaa, Bharatiya asmitaa.
Kalyanaraman
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Kalyanaraman
| Wednesday , August 19 , 2015 |Going, going...for Rs 1.25 lakh cr- Modi's poll package minus specifics | ||||
| Roshan Kumar | ||||
| Ara, Aug. 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today shook a cocktail of blandishments at voters in caste-ridden Bihar that blended some dodgy economics and astute politics with the élan of a sharp-eyed conjurer. Modi literally pulled a Rs 1.25 lakh crore rabbit out of his hat - and held it out before a heaving mass of people that had gathered at the Ramna Maidan in Ara with an unequivocal message: vote for the NDA and I will change Bihar. It was just as well that chief minister Nitish Kumar decided to welcome Modi at Patna airport and chose not to go to Ara, 60km to the west, to attend the official function that was ostensibly held to inaugurate 11 national highways being built at a cost of Rs 9,700 crore and lay the foundation stones for 22 skill development centres across the state. Modi's speech - he turned the official event into virtually his third pre-election rally in the state - was full of sarcasm and taunts directed at his bête noire Nitish Kumar. "It seemed that the Prime Minister was bribing the voters of Bihar," said JDU national spokesperson K.C. Tyagi. The Prime Minister used rapier thrusts to shred Nitish's oft-repeated charge that Modi had done nothing for Bihar. "The chief minister gave Bihar's ' swabhiman (pride)' a go and went to the previous government in Delhi to seek a financial package. The then Union government gave him Rs 12,000 crore which included the Rs 1,000 crore per year announced by the Vajpayee government," Modi said, while attacking the Congress with whom Nitish has allied for the upcoming Assembly polls. He reacted to Nitish's statement criticising the Prime Minister for declaring Bihar a Bimaru state. "I welcome Nitish Kumarji's statement. May his mouth be full of sugar and honey. But tell me if a man is not sick, does he go to the doctor? If everything is all right in Bihar, why does he keep demanding things from the Centre," he asked - and the crowd of about 25,000 roared in approval. Modi made it clear that the Rs 1.25 lakh crore special package for Bihar - which was short on specifics, minus any timeframe but long on promises with some sleight-of-hand counting - was over and above the Rs 40,657 crore earmarked for expenditure on ongoing central projects like the thermal plant in Banka and national highways. It was also a dig at Nitish, who has often accused the Prime Minister of "repackaging" old promises made by previous governments. The PMO released a break-up of the package but it wasn't immediately clear if the money allocated by the different ministries was over and above the sum already listed under various heads. Modi's jibes, at Ara and at the party rally in Saharsa later in the afternoon, drew an instant response from Nitish. "If I have to go to any darbar for Bihar and its people, I will not hesitate," Nitish tweeted. At a news conference in Patna, the chief minister taunted Modi for the auction-like build-up to the announcement of the package. "Was the Prime Minister auctioning Bihar?" Nitish said. "This is just re-packaging, not a package." A lot of the credit ought to go to Nitish for forcing Modi to start talking about a special package - an issue on which the Centre has often maintained it doesn't have the discretionary powers to craft bailout packages for states because of the new fund devolution formula adopted by the Fourteenth Finance Commission. Ever since Modi came to power, Nitish has been demanding special category status for the state - which Modi had promised during his election campaign. Since then, the BJP appears to have dropped its support for granting special category status to the state. The BJP's argument for this is premised on the fact that the 14th Finance Commission - which has laid down the rules for sharing funds between the Centre and the states - had decided to drop the distinction between special category and other states. The Raghuram Rajan report of September 2013 - which had proposed a composite development index for states as a basis for allocation of funds - had also subsumed the concept of "special category" within its methodology that provided for the allocation of additional assistance to least developed states. Both reports were designed to minimise the element of Centre's discretion in the allocation of funds - and it remains to be seen how Modi can shake off the straitjacket that the devolution formula places on the Centre. The BJP has argued that the tax benefits for investors in Bihar had already been announced by the Union finance minister in his last budget. Nitish has been slamming the Modi government over the reduced share of Bihar in terms of percentage of central taxes, while the BJP points out that the state will get almost three times the amount it got in the previous five years. The 14th Finance Commission had determined Bihar's share of central taxes at 9.665 per cent - the second highest after Uttar Pradesh's 17.959 per cent. Earlier this year, Nitish submitted a memorandum by an all-party delegation (excluding the BJP) demanding Rs 1.10 lakh crore as central assistance from the Centre. Quite a few of the demands made by Nitish in that memorandum, like the new airport for Patna, roads, educational institutes, have been met in Modi's special package today. However, the state government was ignored when a committee headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley prepared the package for Bihar. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150819/jsp/frontpage/story_37983.jsp#.VdP-EdSqqko
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150819/jsp/frontpage/story_37986.jsp#.VdP-otSqqkp |
