New Delhi, April 18
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today sanctioned a Rs 12,000 crore package for Nitish Kumar's Bihar under the Backward Regions Grant Fund, a significant move given the raging turmoil in the BJP-led NDA of which the JD-U is a key player.

The CCEA, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, cleared the package under which Bihar will get Rs 3,000 crore a year for four years. This is double the amount allocated to the state by the Planning Commission last year. With the JD-U slowly moving away from the BJP over the issue of the Prime Ministerial candidate, the timing of the announcement is critical.

In a similar attempt to please Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, the CCEA also cleared a package for its backward region of Bundelkhand. The Centre would give Rs 4,400 crore to the region over the next four years. A Rs 250 crore package was also announced for the KBK circles of Odisha, which remains in the grip of abject poverty.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tiwari said the total package for the three states would be to the tune of Rs 17,650 crore.

In other decisions, the Cabinet approved the Indian Railways plan to use its land for other purposes and gave an extension to the one-man committee set up to probe allegation of lobbying activities of Bentonville-based retailer Walmart to gain entry into India. The Prevention of Corruption Bill that was to be taken up by the Cabinet was deferred.

With General Elections a year away, the Congress-led ruling UPA’s package for Bihar after Nitish Kumar’s ‘Adhikaar Rally’ in Delhi makes no attempt to disguise UPA’s interest in JD-U, which has 20 MPs in the current Lok Sabha.

The Nitish Kumar Government has been seeking special economic benefits for his state from the Centre for the last many months. The Congress has sensed an opportunity in the heightening hostility between the BJP and JD-U over the possible naming of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the UPA’s prime ministerial candidate.

Last weekend, the Bihar Chief Minister had made a scathing attack on his Gujarat counterpart. Without naming Modi he made it clear that the Gujarat CM was not acceptable to his party as the NDA's Prime Ministerial choice.