Union Budget FY25: “Special aid” for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: In the first full budget of the NDA government for the financial year 2024-25, tabled in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced “special aid” for the Janata Dal (United)-ruled Bihar and Telugu Desam Party- ruled Andhra Pradesh, respectively.
Sitharaman announced an allocation of Rs. 26,000 crore for Bihar and Rs. 15,000 crore for Andhra Pradesh, mainly for infrastructure development. The Centre will set up airports, medical colleges, and sports infrastructure in Bihar, she said.
Given the imperatives of ‘coalition politics’, the Modi 3.0 government has gone the extra mile for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh which had been demanding a “special status” ever since their bifurcation created resource-rich Jharkhand and Telangana states in the last two decades. The successive Union governments could not, however, fulfill this demand as the two states did not fit into the criteria of the northeastern and hilly states which got special status in the past.
With special allocations, the BJP-led NDA has tried to address the aspirations of the two states.
Sitharaman announced a series of monetary aids and developmental projects for the two states, as the JD(U) and TDP are critical to the stability of the NDA government at the Centre with their respective 16 and 12 MPs in the Lok Sabha.
Besides the Rs 15,000 crore for Andhra Pradesh’s development in the current financial year, the southern state would get more funds in subsequent years, she assured.
Emphasizing the Centre’s commitment to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, she pledged grants for the development of backward regions of the state, along with a special mention of the Polavaram Dam project.
For Bihar, the FM revealed plans for new airports, medical colleges, and sports infrastructure, assuring the state government that its requests to multilateral banks would be fast-tracked. Additionally, Rs 26,000 crore has been earmarked for highways in Bihar, including the Patna-Purnia, Buxar-Bhagalpur, and Bodhgaya-Rajgir-Vaishali-Darbhanga Expressway, along with a new two-lane bridge over the Ganga in Buxar. A 2,400 MW power plant and an industrial corridor node in Gaya are also on the anvil.
Bihar will benefit from the Purvodaya initiative, aimed at boosting development in the eastern part of the country. “We will formulate Purvodaya for the all-round development of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh,” Sitharaman said, noting that the project would focus on human resources development, infrastructure enhancement, and economic opportunity generation, to make this region a driving force for achieving a developed India.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu had lobbied hard for ‘special help’ for their states in pre-Budget meetings with Union ministers.
Cabinet Minister and TDP leader Ram Mohan Naidu was seen cheering and giving a thumbs-up as Sitharaman made the announcements for Andhra Pradesh, reflecting the coalition’s satisfaction with the budgetary provisions.
