NEW DELHI: With the Bihar Assembly elections scheduled for November this year, the Nitish Kumar government on Monday tabled a Rs 3.17 lakh crore budget, with a major push towards women’s empowerment, proposing the setting up of a ‘mahila haat’ (women’s marketplace) in Patna, besides proposing “pink toilets” in all districts and “pink buses” in major cities.
Women form a significant chunk of votebase in Bihar and with several NDA-ruled states like Maharashtra offering women-centric cash incentive schemes, the announcements seemed clearly aimed at securing women’s support for the forthcoming Assembly polls.
“We also propose the establishment of ‘Kanya Vivah Mandaps’ in all panchayats, which will serve the needs of poor rural families with girls of marriageable age,” Finance Minister and BJP leader Samrat Chaudhary said while presenting the budget in the Vidhan Sabha.
Calling it a budget for “Viksit Bihar”, Chaudhary, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister of the state, took a dig at the opposition RJD-Congress coalition, saying, “Modi’s vision of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas aur sabka prayas’ and the CM’s motto of ‘nyay ke saath vikas’ have been the twin guiding principles behind the budget. We are making progress, leaving behind years of anarchy.”
Speaking about the budgetary allocations for different sectors, Chaudhary said Rs 60,964 crore had been set aside for education, which was of crucial importance in the densely populated state that had a relatively young demography.
He said Rs 20,335 crore had been allocated for the health sector, while Rs 17,831 crore will be given to the home department, which is responsible for law and order, improvement in which has been the most talked about achievement of the NDA government. Besides, Rs 16,193 would be spent on rural development and Rs 13,483 crore on energy in 2025-26, he added.
He also said the government had increased the scholarship amount for students from backward classes and extremely backward through various schemes from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 per month.
He said Bihar would be building “greenfield airports” at Sultanganj and Raxaul, in Bhagalpur and East Champaran districts, respectively, and “the airport at Purnea will become operational in three months from now”.
In a bid to strengthen the health network in the state, a dedicated cancer hospital has been proposed for Begusarai district. In his speech, Chaudhary also mentioned about the “cooperation” received by the state from the Centre, and thanked it for the many announcements made for Bihar in the Union Budget.