Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said at least Rs 1.08 lakh crore or 87 percent of the special package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi "with an intent to win Bihar elections" was a "mere repackaging of old schemes".
"...At the best, the so called Rs 1.25 lakh crore package will not provide anything more than Rs 10,368 crore as additional or incremental resource to the state. This too in the absence of a defined timeline or disbursement modalities hardly means anything to the state," the Chief Minister told reporters in the presence of state Finance Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav.
"A close look reveals that against the much hyped claim of Rs 1.25 lakh crore, 87 per cent of the so called special package worth projects is nothing but a mere repackaging of old schemes, appropriation of pre-approved allocations for old ones and continued contributions to ongoing schemes which were announced by various ministries at different point of time in the past," Kumar said.
Moreover, for a few of the new items totalling to the tune of about Rs 6,000 crore in the package, there is not even a shred of evidence of planning or work on ground, he said.
Making a scathing attack on the Prime Minister for announcing the special package at Arrah "after lots of theatrics like auctioning Bihar", Kumar said after making a detailed study of the "so-called package" he came to the conclusion that "it is nothing but a joke with the state with an intent to win Bihar elections."
Trashing the special package announced during the Prime Minister's visit to Bihar on August 18 as nothing but "narrate a fairy tale to the people of Bihar," Kumar said it was 'aakro ka mayajaal' (illusion weaved on the basis of statistics).
