Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar on Tuesday praised the Union Budget as “balanced budget”, while his party JD(U)’s parliamentary board chairman Upendra Kushwaha described it as “disappointing”.
“For the last two years, the country’s development has been affected due to COVID-19 pandemic and to bring out the country from the adverse situation, the Centre through its Budget, has taken several steps to accelerate the speed of development, which is praiseworthy. I congratulate the Union Government for presenting a balanced budget,” said Mr. Kumar while adding, “the Union Government’s decision to build infrastructure on a large scale in the country is also laudable”.
Mr. Kumar further said, “It has also been decided in the Budget to increase the volume of procurement of paddy and wheat. Farmers will be hugely benefited from this decision.” Besides, “It has been announced that a corridor for natural farming will be developed on a stretch of five kilometres on the banks of river Ganga. This step of the Union Government is laudable,” he said, while adding that Bihar government had been developing a corridor for organic farming from its own resources in 13 districts on both sides of the river.
However, his party’s parliamentary board chairman and key political aide, Upendra Kushwaha described the Budget as “disappointing”. “It might be historic for developed States but for Bihar it is disappointing. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman disappointed the people of Bihar by not saying anything on their demand for granting special status to the State,” tweeted Mr. Kushwaha soon after the Budget was presented in the Lok Sabha. Mr. Kushwaha also added a hashtag at the bottom of his tweet saying, ‘desh ka pradhan, Bihar per dein dhyan (country’s head, kindly focus on Bihar)”.
The JD(U) is the ruling alliance partner of the BJP in Bihar and at the Centre.
Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal took a jibe at Mr. Kushwaha for his tweet. “If somebody who has been a Union Minister, expects the Budget to announce special category status, one can only pity his ignorance”. Mr. Kushwaha was the Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development from 2014 to 2018.
