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Nitish Kumar hails Union Budget amid Bihar special status rejection
Nitish Kumar said the budget met Bihar's demand for special assistance despite their ask for special status being turned down due to “practical difficulties”.
Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar on Tuesday praised the Union budget presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman after the Centre proposed to arrange financial assistance for the state through multilateral development agencies, a day after the state's demand for special status was rejected.
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The Bihar CM said, “(the budget) meets our demand for special assistance, if grant of special status was not possible because of practical difficulties,” reported news agency PTI.
Hitting out at the RJD-Congress-Left combine, Nitish Kumar said, “These people who are making so much noise should remember that when they were part of the ruling dispensation at the Centre, the state never got its due. Whatever progress you can see is a result of the state government's efforts since we assumed power in 2005. So bad was the situation until then that even in a city like Patna, people feared going out of their homes after dark.”
Finance minister Sitharaman proposed ₹26,000 crore for the infrastructure and development of the state, such as airports, medical colleges and road connectivity projects during the budget presentation on Tuesday. Reacting to the budgetary outlay of ₹26,000, Bihar's parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said the fund would expedite growth across all sectors.
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Chaudhary also heaped praises on Prime Minister Narenda Modi and the finance minister for “addressing Bihar's concerns in the budget”.
Chaudhary commented that they had asked for special aid in some other form if providing special status to Bihar was not possible due to practical difficulties. “The budget lives up to the expectation,” he added.
On Monday, the NDA government rejected Bihar's demand for special status citing the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) report 2012.
The Bihar assembly was adjourned twice on Tuesday with the opposition disrupting the house, raising slogans and trying to upturn the furniture against the Union government's refusal to grant special status to the state, reported PTI.
Senior RJD leader Kumar Sarvajeet criticised the budget and said the state should have received special status to bring real development to ensure a better access to facilities like education, roads and employment for the poorest of the poor.
Sarvajeet was also hit out against the Union government's promises such as the construction of an industrial node at Gaya and the development of Nalanda as a tourist centre. He said, “Announcements in the budget seem to have been made sharing the chief minister's view that building infrastructure automatically leads to growth.”
The finance minister also announced an additional Rs.11,500 crore for flood control measures and another Rs.21,400 crore for the power projects including a new 2400 MW power plant at Pirpainti.
A ‘Poorvodaya’ initiative aimed at boosting the development of India’s eastern region was also announced during the budget presentation.
The government announced support for the development of Nalanda as a tourist centre and also promised to allocate special funds for developing temple corridors in the iconic temples in the state. A special fund for Bodh Gaya and Rajgir Jain Temple sites on the lines of Varanasi has also been announced.
(with PTI inputs)
