Patna:
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, often praised for his good governance, today made another promise to the people of his state. During his speech at the Independence Day function in Patna, Mr Kumar said, "If the power situation doesn't improve, I will not seek votes in the 2015 assembly elections."
He also said that the government will open a secondary school in every panchayat.
The Bihar Chief Minister said that he was confident of making the state corruption free as it was turning the society "hollow".
"Corruption is making the society hollow and it is extremely necessary to be brought under a check... I have full confidence that we will be able to stamp out corruption (from the state)," Mr Kumar said at Gandhi Maidan.
Mr Kumar asked the Central government for a special category status for Bihar. "Bihar is developing fast. Last year our growth rate was more than 16 per cent but it is high time the Central government should help the state by giving it a special category status," he said.
He said without New Delhi's help, it would take nearly 25 years for Bihar to touch the national average of economic growth.
(With Agency inputs)