CM has little hope from Union budget

Patna: Bihar CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, while addressing the media on Vidhan Sabha premises on Wednesday said the state has been deceived in the Rail budget announced on Tuesday and he does not expect much from the Union budget scheduled to be tabled on Thursday. “Now that the rail budget is out, we cannot expect that the state will get any help from the Centre in the Union budget,” he said.

Citing the number of BJP MPs from the state and the ministers in the Union government, he said they should prevail upon the government and demand more grants in the budget for the welfare of their state. “What Bihar deserves, it should be given to it by the Centre,” Manjhi said and added around Rs 1,000 crore of the state was spent on repair of National Highways in Bihar and the Centre should reimburse the amount.

In power projects and other schemes too, the state needed support from the Centre, he said and added there has been lack of assistance from the Centre in tax structure as well. “Bihar has also been denied the special package it deserved after creation of Jharkhand,” said Manjhi. “I don’t expect anything positive for the state in the budget too, but let’s see what happens tomorrow,” he said.

When asked about the disorder that marred the proceedings of Bihar assembly on Tuesday, the CM said he had held a meeting with his party members and appealed to them not to enter the well. “None of the JD (U) members entered into the well in the second half, but the opposition members kept on creating commotion and disturbed the proceedings,” he said and added, “It seems the opposition does not want to cooperate with us in the passage of various departments’ budgets.”

Courtesy: TNN