Date:05/04/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/04/05/stories/2006040507561200.htm

National

Lalu debunks Nitish's claims

Special Correspondent

PATNA: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Tuesday dubbed the so-called white paper issued by the Nitish Kumar Government as "replete with lies and half-truths" and claimed that Bihar had developed during the past 15 years of his party's rule.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Prasad denied the allegations of Deputy Chief Minister S. K. Modi that the State's economy was in dire straits and pointed out that fiscal management had improved so much that the Centre had acknowledged it by financially rewarding Bihar for the past three years.

Denying Mr. Modi's claim that the State had not registered any growth, Mr. Prasad said the decadal growth was 4.1 per cent (the national average 6.2) despite the fact that the NDA Government, of which Mr. Kumar was a Central Minister, had starved it of funds and meted out step-motherly treatment.

The per capita domestic product grew at the rate of 4.5 per cent, higher than the national average of 4.2 per cent, which was better than what States like Gujarat, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh achieved.

He alleged that Mr. Kumar had done nothing despite being in power for four months.