Pointing out the slow progress in execution of rural roads by the Central agencies, the Nitish Kumar Government has urged the Centre that the state should be given the responsibility to construct the roads. "Road being a state subject the state Government would like to construct the rural roads on its own, so that the target of Bharat Nirman is realised at the earliest", Nitish Kumar stressed in his speech at the NDC meeting on Wednesday.

When contacted, Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said that apart from threat from Naxals, there's a shortage of contractors in Bihar.

"For one road, tenders had to be floated eight times and still there were no takers. Moreover, time and again we have communicated in writing about the stumbling blocks pertaining to the project. But the state Government is interested in only blame game," said Singh, underlining that his ministry was ready to share construction work with the Bihar Government.

Bihar is the only state in the country that has completely handed over the responsibility of building rural roads to Central agencies. It was done during the previous RJD regime in August 2004. Now, the Nitish Kumar Government wants to take it back, stressing that road was a state subject.