NEW DELHI: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has sought a special status for the State to help its overall development and make it attractive to investors. He placed this demand before the President, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission and other senior Ministers whom Mr. Kumar met on Friday.

"There were no commitments from their side, but I think the preliminary round of meetings was positive with none of them rejecting the demand outright," he told reporters at a reception organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here on Saturday.

He said a high-power official delegation would also go to Hyderabad for the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas meet next month to tap potential investors. But for this we would need better infrastructure, improved administration and effective law and order enforcement machinery. "The development of Bihar is important for the development of the country," he said.

Describing the state of the administration, the police and the finances in Bihar as "pathetic" when he took over, Mr. Kumar said he did not believe in crying over the past but it was necessary to place this on record. According to the Chief Minister, the Plan allocations in Bihar had been downsized for the past many years because the State Government was unable to utilise the funds. "But this time, we will try and make the maximum use of the Central funds."

Pointing out that only 20 per cent of the Central funds had been used in the current financial year, the Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said in the coming three months the Government had to spend the remaining 80 per cent, which was a challenge. "We inherited a bankrupt State where we had to borrow as loan Rs. 12,000 crores required to give salaries and pension to the people." He said the Government would present a full-fledged annual budget in March after several decades as Bihar had been surviving on Vote-on-Account all these years.

Claiming that the law and order situation was showing remarkable improvement, he said several cases of kidnapping had been solved in the past weeks and the cases would now be tried in fast-track courts. "The kidnapping mafia would end soon," he said.

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