'Will Not Give Up Demand for Special Status for Bihar': CM Nitish Kumar

"Though we might not have made any headway, but we are not giving up," Kumar said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

(Photo: PTI)  

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday, 29 September, said that he would stand by the demand for a special category status for the Bihar.

The chief minister's statement comes as a response to a remark made by Vijendra Yadav, a state minister belonging to the Janata Dal (United) party, who had said that the state Cabinet was tired of placing their demands before the Centre. "We are tired, we cannot go on making the demand indefinitely," Yadav had said.

"The minister may have made an off-the-cuff remark. Special status for Bihar has been demanded by us in view of its developmental needs. Though we might not have made any headway, but we are not giving up," Kumar was quoted as saying by news agency PTI on Wednesday.

The demand for a special category status for Bihar had surfaced after Jharkhand was carved out of the state and was given independent statehood in 2000.

Chief Minister Kumar had also recently articulated that he would persevere over the demand of a caste-based census, even as the Centre has marked its opposition to the survey.

"Caste census is in the interest of the country. It will help the country's development," the Bihar politician was quoted as saying by PTI on Sunday, four days after the central government told the Supreme Court that collection of caste details through a population census was "administratively difficult and cumbersome."

"We would like to request that the issue be considered and reconsidered, and caste census be carried out,” Kumar had iterated.

(With inputs from PTI)