Asserting that Bihar deserved special treatment in view of the ills that have plagued the state, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday urged the Centre to declare it a backward state and extend all-possible tax relief to it.
Talking to reporters at his state assembly chamber, Nitish said the centre had covered only 15 of 38 districts under the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Food for Work programme.
Taking into account large-scale exodus of unskilled labourers, all the districts of the state should have been covered under the scheme, he added.
"If all the districts are covered, the large-scale migration of labourers to other states will be effectively checked," Kumar said.
The chief minister said he had taken up with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the issue of covering all the districts in the state under the Employment Guarantee Scheme and its effective implementation.
He said the state required special treatment as it was facing multi-faceted problems in view of the growing naxal activities, unemployment and poverty as also keeping in mind its boundary with Nepal.
More from rediff