Amid charges flying thick and fast over the Centre’s ₹1.25 lakh crore package to Bihar ahead of the Assembly polls, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday once again trashed the central aid as “packaged myth” of old schemes to influence the electorate.

In a letter to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, a response to the latter’s recent letter, Kumar wrote: “It is clear that this package for Bihar announced just before elections is nothing but well conceived packaged myth devised to influence people.”

To buttress his charge, Kumar pointed to the lack of action in the Union Finance Ministry to raise funds for the State. “Your ministry is not seen to be scrambling to find resources, as if no additional allocations are to be provided from within the Union Budget,” he said.

Packs it with details

Kumar also appended a detailed table to highlight the status of projects included in the special package.

He also contested the Centre’s claim that Bihar was to benefit a lot by the increase in tax devolution as per recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission.

Kumar said a large chunk of the package – ₹1.08 lakh crore – was part of funds already promised to the State for on-going and pre-approved schemes. “Same figures are now being passed off as new fund or investment,” he alleged. On roads, he said: “This package claims to earmark an additional ₹54,713 crore for 41 projects for building highways, bridges & rail over bridges. But reality is that 37 of 41 projects worth ₹47,553 crore were already approved or approved in principle.”

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