PATNA: Questioning the NITI Aayog’s assessment system, CM Nitish Kumar on Monday said Bihar as on date could not be compared with the country’s richest state Maharashtra. “Is it proper to compare the country’s richest state with the poorest state?” he asked.
Reacting over the NITI Aayog’s recent performance assessment report on ‘district hospitals in India’, in which Bihar has been shown among the worst performing states in some categories, Nitish said he was not aware as to how and through whom they assess works.
“Bihar has done a lot to improve the health sector ever since people gave us a mandate to work in the state. We brought phenomenal improvement in providing medical facilities. But the NITI Aayog makes similar assessments about many states across the country. I have raised these issues (related to faulty assessment) in the NITI Aayog’s past meetings,” Nitish said while responding to a media query after his janata darbar programme in Patna.
Expressing his displeasure over Bihar’s poor ranking in the Aayog’s latest report on the district hospitals, Nitish said, “You (NITI Aayog) should know the latest facts before making assessment. How can you compare the country’s richest state with the poorest one? Is it a proper method to do an assessment to know about something?”
He also said his government would soon send a point-wise reply to the Aayog on what they have published in the assessment report.
Recalling the poor state of hospitals in Bihar before he came to power in 2005, Nitish said very few people used to turn up at the government hospitals for treatment. “But after we got an opportunity to serve the people, the number of patients at different government hospitals swelled by thousands,” he said.
The CM also said if he gets an opportunity to attend a formal meeting of the NITI Aayog in future, he would once again raise all these issues.
