New Delhi:
A day after Nitish Kumar accused Manmohan Singh of misleading the nation on the issue of the Centre's demand to seek refund of Rs 1,000 crore of assistance given to the state for relief to the Kosi flood victims, the Prime Minister on Tuesday called the Bihar Chief Minister to discuss the issue.
"Yes, absolutely. The prime minister is misleading the nation on this issue. Bihar Chief Secretary R J M Pillai received a letter from Director of the National Disaster Department-I Dev Kumar on April 30, barely 20 minutes after the polling in Kosi region was over," Nitish had said on Monday.
Terming it the violation of Constitutional norms, Nitish said, "There can be no doubt about it. The norms are indeed being flouted. The Centre is asking us to pay back the money. It is like rubbing salt on our wounds. Where is the money to be returned? It all went toward providing succour to the suffering humanity."
Kumar also said the Bihar government was given to believe during the disaster that Centre would extend financial support with the same generosity with which it helped states like Orissa, Gujarat and coastal states in tackling cyclones, earthquakes and tsunami.
However, the Prime Minister while reacting to Kumar's contention had said on Monday, "Whatever Nitish has said is absolutely false. The fault of not spending the money is with the state government and not with the Centre."
But Nitish slammed the PM's charge, saying that everybody has seen with their own eyes the kind of relief operations carried out by the state government.
(With PTI inputs)