NITI Aayog Report Rekindles Special Status Demand For Bihar

The NITI Aayog had last week come out with its latest SDG (sustainable development goal) index placing states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh at the top.

The long-standing demand for special status to Bihar has been rekindled by a recent report of NITI Aayog that put the state at the bottom and provided the opposition with fresh ammunition against the NDA, which has been in power for more than a decade. The NITI Aayog had last week come out with its latest SDG (sustainable development goal) index placing states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh at the top while Bihar with 52 points out of a total of 100 was at the bottom, a spot it has been occupying for long. On cue, JD(U) leader Upendra Kushwaha came out with a couple of tweets tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi whom he requested to reconsider the demand for special category status, asserting that while the Nitish Kumar government in the state had done all it could to improve the overall economic situation, a real turnaround has eluded Bihar. JD(U) leaders contend that the state has been adversely affected by the carving out of the resource-rich Jharkhand two decades ago.