While inaugurating the Mirror Conference of Stanford Centre for International Development, being held here for the first time, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today criticised central institutions and policy makers, accusing them of taking unilateral decisions while disregarding the genuine concerns of the states.

Pointing out that the National Development Council (NDC) had ceased to serve its original purpose, Kumar stressed the need to create new institutions for meaningful Centre-state dialogue. He alleged that central institutions often took unilateral decisions for states. “The Centre decides something for the states and they have no option but to accept it,” he remarked, urging the practice should end.

Kumar shared the view of noted economist Prof T N Srinivasan, a participant at the conference, that there was a need for institutional restructuring in the context of Centre-state relations. Elucidating his point further, Kumar referred to the recent controversy over the BPL list in the state. He pointed out that the poverty figures given by the National Sample Survey (NSS) were misleading in the case of Bihar. He said even by conservative estimates, more than 50 per cent of the state’s population lived below the poverty line.

“Based on these figures the Centre is allocating food grains and kerosene for the poor and we are unable to fulfill the demand since there are at least one crore poor families in the state while the central provision caters to just 65 lakh families,” he maintained. He urged the Centre to accept its demand and make provisions for one crore families in the state. Kumar expressed his desire to hold an international conference on poverty in Patna.

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