Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said that he would launch a statewide movement if the Centre does not grant special category status to the state, reported The Hindu.

“Bihar needs a special status for more development and progress,” said the chief minister at an event organised by the state industry department. “If the Centre does not accord the special status to the state, it means they are against Bihar’s development.”

The special status category is given to states facing disadvantages such as economic and infrastructural backwardness, being located along international borders or having low population densities.

Bihar has been demanding special status ever since mineral-rich Jharkhand was carved out of the state in 2000.

At the event, Kumar said that the Bihar Assembly recently passed a bill to increase caste-based reservations in education and government jobs from 50% to 65% based on a caste census, reported PTI.

“We have planned a number of welfare initiatives for the economically weaker sections of the society and it would cost a poor state like Bihar several crores of rupees,” he said. “We will have to spend it in over five years.”

The chief minister said that if the demand for a special category status is met, Bihar would be able to provide all benefits to the economically weaker sections within two and a half years.

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The Bihar Assembly passed the bill to expand caste-based reservations on November 9. Under the bill, Scheduled Castes will get a reservation of 20%, up from 16%, while the quota for Scheduled Tribes has been doubled from 1% to 2%. Other Backward Classes will get 15% reservations, up from 12%. For Extremely Backward Classes, the quota will raised from 18% to 25%.

Combined with the 10% quota for Economically Weaker Sections, the total reservation in the state will go up to 75%, once it gets the governor’s approval.

The idea of special status was introduced in 1969 after the Central government acknowledged that several states were more disadvantaged than others.

Kumar has been at the forefront of demanding Bihar’s inclusion in the category. The issue has been an item on his election agenda during several state Assembly polls, including the one held last year.

During the Assembly’s Winter Session, which concluded on November 9, the chief minister had urged Opposition BJP leaders to raise the issue with the Narendra Modi-led Central government.

“We have been doing a lot for the state but if you [Opposition BJP legislators] would get the special status from the Centre for the state, Bihar will be more developed and shine,” he had said.

However, BJP’s Hari Sahni, the leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, told Kumar to first submit a No Objection Certificate for the grants that Bihar has already received from the Centre.