Patna, Feb 22 (Reporter) Bihar Rural Works Minister and senior JD(U) leader Ashok Choudhary said that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had worked a lot for upliftment of oppressed section of the society. Chaudhary said that during the RJD regime, annual budget of Bihar was merely Rs 24,000 crores which increased to Rs 2,69,000 crores. In those days, Backwards, Extremely Backwards, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes welfare were clubbed under one department but after coming to power in 2005, Chief Minister Kumar separated SCs- STs welfare and BCs-EBCs welfare and two different departments were created for them, he pointed out. "Budgetary allocation for SCs, STs, BCs and EBCs welfare department was only Rs 40 crores which increased to Rs 1400 crores for only SCs and STs welfare," JD(U) leader said adding that no Chief Minister in any state had ever done so much work for upliftment of oppressed as done by Kumar in Bihar. A number of welfare schemes for SCs and STs had been launched by Chief Minister Kumar which helped them in changing their conditions, he pointed out...////...