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Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh expressed contentment with the allocation of funds in the Union Budget 2024 and said that the budget has plenty of packages for Bihar in every sector, such as infrastructure, tourism or irrigation.
Rajiv Ranjan Singh said, "We had demanded special status or special package for Bihar. Today's Budget has an abundance of package for Bihar. Whatever sector you look at -- be it strengthening infrastructure or developing tourism or irrigation -- there is abundance of schemes in every sector. After the implementation of these schemes, Bihar's growth rate will go up." He further took a jibe at former Chief Minister of Bihar Rabri Devi on her "jhunjhuna" remark for budget allocation for Bihar, asking how she would understand things like budget when her signature cannot be interpreted. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that the state government had been demanding special status or a special package for Bihar for a long time and now the process has started. Nitish Kumar said, "I have continuously spoken for this (special status), I told them as well (NDA). I told them to give us either a special status or a special package. As a follow-up, they have announced aid for a lot of things. We were speaking of special status and a lot of people said that the provision for special status has been done away with much earlier. So, instead of that, aid should be given to help Bihar. They have now started it." He further said that since November 2005 so much work has been done in Bihar and if centre provides aid it will boost the development activity He added, "The road infrastructure has improved, so many schools have been built, and even in Patna after evening, no one used to come out of their houses. We had been saying from the beginning to help Bihar, especially for this purpose and in that process, they have announced several steps as aid. We are doing lot of work in the state and if we get aid from the centre it will further boost the development activity." Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made major announcements for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, including a boost in infrastructure and special financial support. The announcement covers human resource development, infrastructure and the generation of economic opportunities to make the eastern region of the country covering Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra pradesh an engine to attain Viksit Bharat. In her Budget speech in Parliament, Nirmala Sitharaman said, "On the Amritsar-Kolkata industrial corridor we will support the development of an industrial nod at Gaya in Bihar. We will also support the construction of road connectivity projects namely Patna-Purnia Expressway, Buxar-Bagalpur Expressway, Bodhgaya-Rajgir-Vaishali-Darbanga and an additional two-lane bridge over river Ganga at Buxar at a total cost of Rs 26,000 cr." "Power projects, including setting up of a new 2400 megawatt power plant at Pirpainti, will be taken up at a cost of Rs 21400 crore," she added. The Finance Minister said that new airports, medical colleges and sports infrastructure in Bihar will be constructed. An additional allocation to support capital investments will be provided, she said. She emphasised that the requests of the Bihar government for external assistance from multi-lateral development banks will be expedited. The FM also announce an allocation of Rs 11500 crore or flood control measures in Bihar. Funds have also been provided for developing the Temple corridors in the iconic temples in NIhar. The Kashi Model will be implemented in Bodh Gaya. Special funds have also been provided for the Rajgir Jain Temple site. (ANI)
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