Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that the government will formulate plan Purvodaya for all round development of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh to achieve the goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’.
While the Centre refused special category status to Bihar, it has given a big highway and road boost to the state in the budget.
The government proposed Rs 26,000 crore for various road projects in the state.
The government also announced 15,000 crore for Andhra Pradesh, with additional amounts in future years.
Sitharaman made the announcement while presenting her seventh consecutive budget, eclipsing the late Moraji Desai’s record of six consecutive budgets, who presented five annual budgets and one interim budget between 1959 and 1964 as finance minister. Desai, however, holds the record of presenting the most numbers of budgets at 10.
This was the much-awaited full budget for 2024-25, the first under the Modi 3.0 government.
Sitharamam had in February presented the interim budget, which took care of the financial needs of the intervening period until a government was formed after the Lok Sabha polls.
Sitharaman, who will turn 65 next month, was appointed as India’s first full-time woman finance minister in 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a decisive second term. Since then, she has presented six straight budgets, including an interim one in February this year.
The budget session of Parliament began on July 22 and, according to schedule, will end on August 12.
With inputs from agencies
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To achieve Viksit Bharat goal, govt to formulate plan Purvodaya for 5 states including Bihar, Andhra
