Bihar Chief Minister will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon to take up financial issues of the state, the Assembly was informed.
Announcing this while replying to a debate of the budget, Finance Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said personal equation between two individuals need not have a bearing on discharge of official duties.
In the context of Nitish and Modi, it would be a routine thing when the two leaders meet each other as the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister and not as Nitish and Modi, he said.
Kumar has himself said on several occasions in recent times after taking over reins of Bihar that he will have no hesitation in calling on Modi to discuss financial issues related to Bihar.
Kumar had shared tumultuous relationship with Modi for many years and Janata Dal United (JDU) snapped ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 21 months ago.
Kumar had called off a dinner for visiting BJP leaders in June 2010 after a photograph of Modi, then Gujarat Chief Minister, had come to Bihar to attend the BJP national executive, appeared in local newspapers holding hand with the JD(U) leader.
The finance minister also hit out at the NDA government for slashing funds to Bihar by Rs 10,000 crore to 12,000 crore and compounding miseries of the resource-crunched state by proposing to do away with central funds under eight schemes, like Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid-day meal and Backward Region Grant Fund.
Stating that the state government felt hamstrung by the Centre’s decision to slash funds to Bihar, Yadav said there were positive signs on the front of generation of revenues from internal sources which have increased by over 20 per cent since last year.
Participating in the debate, the RJD legislator party leader Abdul Bari Siddique, whose party is supporting the JD(U) government from outside, flayed the state government for ‘low allocation’ of funds (Rs 286.30 crore) for development and welfare of the minorities.