Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said the Union government should fully fund all central schemes launched by it and claimed credit for, instead of having mandatory states’ share that sometimes goes up to 40 per cent of the cost.
The CM said states sharing a major component of their revenue for Central schemes often suffer funds crunch for their own projects.
Talking to reporters in Saharsa as part of his mass outreach programme ‘Samadhan Yatra’, Nitish said: “We had requested for fiscal limit to be increased to 4.5 per cent but our request was turned down. Our loan limit is not being increased, thus constraining our development… They give their own name (referring to PM prefix) to central schemes in which states have to share a substantial portion. In certain Central schemes, the share of states goes up to 40 per cent, leaving little funds for them to work it.”
The longest-serving CM of Bihar, who has been pushing for special category status for “all backward states”, also rued “reduction in borrowing limits for states which would further hamper our ability to marshal resources”.
