Nitish Kumar expresses inability to provide matching share

Patna, June 15 (UNI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today expressed the state governments inability to finance and provide a matching share in the Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojna.

In a letter to Rail Minister Lalu Prasad, Mr Kumar attributed the state goverment's inabliity to provide matching share to the resource crunch.

He said diversion of funds was also not possible at this juncture in view of urgency of creation of basic infrastructural facilities and assets in the field of rural development, education, health and others.

''When the Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojna was launched in its original form, no matching share from the state government was envisaged and it was meant to provide connectivity in the rural/ remote areas of the backward states with a view to spur economic growth,'' he noted, adding the programme was drawn when he was in the Railway Ministry.

Mr Kumar claimed the Railway Ministry was apparently trying to shift that focus of the scheme and the approach being adopted might again result in ''rich and prosperous states'' cornering major chunk of the scheme, thus defeating the very purpose of the programme.

A series of advertisements indicated that the Railway was flush with the money and this money could be utilised for completion of all ongoing projects in three years and Bihar which accounted for a large number of commuting passengers, got its share in the Railways huge surplus money, he added.

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