Nitish skipped NITI Aayog meet over refusal of special category status to Bihar: CPI(ML) L

PATNA: The CPI(ML) Liberation, a constituent of the INDIA bloc, has claimed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar skipped the NITI Aayog meeting out of embarrassment over the Centre’s refusal to grant special category status to the state.

The party also slammed the NDA-led central government for "misleading" people over the special package, and announced protest marches next month.

JD(U) leaders, however, were tight-lipped over the absence of Kumar, the party president, at the NITI Aayog meeting held in Delhi on Saturday.

The CM held a party meeting in Patna on Saturday to discuss preparations for assembly polls in neighbouring Jharkhand.

Mehboob Alam, CPI(ML) L leader in the Bihar assembly, said, “I must say that Kumar skipped the meeting out of embarrassment over the refusal of the Centre to grant special category status to Bihar.”

“He should have attended the crucial meeting… He has once again lost the opportunity to seek special category status for Bihar, and inclusion of the state's amended reservation laws in the ninth schedule of the Constitution,” he told PTI.

The ninth schedule includes a list of central and state laws that cannot be challenged in court.

Another CPI(ML) L MLA, Ajeet Kumar Singh, expressed similar views.

“The CM’s decision to skip the NITI Aayog meeting shows that he is least bothered about the welfare of the people of Bihar,” Singh asserted.