Nitish to take out 'yatra' from Patna to New Delhi

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has decided to take out a 'yatra' from Patna to New Delhi to submit over 1 crore signatures of the people of Bihar to President Pratibha Patil in support of a special state status to the state.

"More than 1 crore signature of common people, collected in support of the popular demand of special category status to Bihar, will be submitted to President Patil in New Delhi on July 13," state Janata Dal-United president Vashisht Narain Singh told rediff.com.

Nitish Kumar has repeatedly slammed the Centre for not considering the demand.

"If need be, we will organise a massive public campaign on the special category demand and appeal to the people to congregate at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna to agitate till the time the Centre addressed the rightful demand of the state," Kumar said.

Senior JD-U leader Ranjan Prasad Yadav said Bihar is the poorest among all the states where 54.4 per cent people live below the poverty line while poverty rate in eleven privileged states is 28.3 per cent.

Those states have a road density of 87.97 km while in Bihar it is 25.86 km.

"If calculated, the Central grant comes to Rs 4,017 each person in those states, but in Bihar it is only Rs 579 per capita. As far as density of population is concerned, it is 127 per sq km in those states whereas it is 1,102 in Bihar," Yadav, a JD-U MP said.

Singh said that the party's workers and leaders, including legislators and MPs, would join a meeting at Jantar-Mantar in New Delhi in support of special category status to Bihar.

The Vishesh Darja Yatra (Special category Yatra) will begin from Patna on July 12 and will end in New Delhi on July 13.