No special assistance to poor states will increase regional disparities: Bihar FM

Bihar Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary on Saturday said that if the poor states are not given special assistance by the Centre then regional disparities are bound to increase in the country.

He made the comment referring to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement that the Finance Commission has made a recommendation to the Centre, in which it said that no state will be accorded the special status.

"I don't know how the Union finance minister made such a statement. When the NITI Aayog talks about special assistance to the poorest states, the comment of the Union finance minister will certainly increase regional disparities," Choudhary told PTI.

He said Bihar is the most deserving state that needs special financial assistance from the Centre.

Bihar's growth is better than the national average but it is among the poorest states in the country, he added.

"NITI Aayog has admitted that Bihar made tremendous progress across multiple sectors in the last decade, but owing to its weak base, it may take some more time to catch up with the others. This is the reason that we have been demanding special assistance from the Center," Choudhary said.

The special category status was introduced in 1969 to benefit certain backward states having hilly terrains, strategic international borders and economic and infrastructural backwardness.

Eleven states -- Assam, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Uttarakhand and Telangana -- have been accorded the special category state status.

Telangana, the newest state of India, was accorded the status as it was carved out of another state -- Andhra Pradesh.