Tejashwi Yadav, RJD leader and Leader of Opposition in Bihar assembly, has termed the announcement of a special package for Bihar in the budget as “old wine in a new bottle”. His party is pressing for special status for the state.
On special assistance
This is a regular allocation. A lot of these projects were announced, approved or sanctioned in the past too. Much more was expected and is needed to alleviate the state’s backwardness, kickstart industries and businesses and create jobs for the youth so that they don’t have to migrate. Bihar needs both special status and a special package to make up for decades of neglect.
On projects not completed
Take for instance, the 4,000 MW ultra-mega power project in Banka was announced in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. ₹20,000 crore was allocated for it. But nothing happened in the next nine years. Now in the budget, ₹21,400 crore has been allocated for 2,400 MW thermal power plant in Pirpainti in Bhagalpur. This also is an old project for which 1,020 acres have been acquired. Even ₹200 crore allocated for land acquisition for this project was siphoned off in Srijan Scam of 2017.
On Special Flood Assistance
We need intervention from Nepal as well. The current incidents and reports of poor quality of embankments, roads, bridges and other public works don’t inspire confidence in the capacity of this government to execute this crucial project.
On RJD’s Special Status demand
The PM had announced a ₹1,25,000 crore package in 2015. Another ₹40,000 was announced by him at the same time. If you compare the 1.65 lakh crore special package of 2015 announced by PM with this budget, you will realise that most schemes are the same with name changes. If schemes and packages announced by the PM haven’t been fulfilled, how can we believe FM?
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On Party’s LS performance
We are enthused and energised by the performance of INDIA bloc. We did quite well despite biased central agencies and a slow and unyielding Election Commission working against us.
