Budget 2024: FM Sitharaman announces Rs 26,000 crore bonanza for Bihar

NEW DELHI: The Centre might have refused special category status for Bihar, but has given a bonanza in Union Budget 2024 for the state. The government proposed Rs 26,000 crore budget for various road projects in Bihar, announced finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Finance minister said the government “will formulate plan Purvodaya for all round development of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.”
“On the Amritsar-Kolkata industrial corridor we will support the development of an industrial nod at Gaya in Bihar.It will catalyse the development of the easter region. We will also support the development of road connectivity projects- Patna -Purnea expressway, Buxar- Bhagalpur highway, Bodhgaya- Rajgir-Vaishali- Darbhanga and an additional two-lane bridge over river Ganga in Buxar for Rs 26,000 crores,” Sitharaman said while presenting Budget 2024 in the Parliament.
The government will also set up airports, medical colleges and sports infrastructure in Bihar, Sitharaman said.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) is a key ally of BJP-led NDA government at Centre. His party had renewed demand for ‘special category status’ for the state before the presentation of the Union Budget. Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party had also demanded the same in the all-party meeting ahead of Monsoon Session of Parliament.
The Centre, however, ruled this out citing a 2012 report.
“The request of Bihar for Special Category Status was considered by an inter-ministerial group (IMG) which submitted its Report on March 30, 2012. The IMG came to the finding that based on existing NDC criteria, the case for Special Category Status for Bihar is not made out,” minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply to a question from Ramprit Mandal, JD(U) MP from Bihar’s Jhanjharpur.