The Union Budget 2024-25 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has extended 'special help' to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, as expected to please the aspirations of key National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies — the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Janata Dal United (JDU).
Sitharaman outlined a series of monetary aids and developmental projects for both states, critical to the stability of the NDA government at the Centre with their respective 16 and 12 MPs. However, Bihar stands to benefit more compared to AP, which has to develop on its own with loans, to be facilitated by the NDA coalition government.
The Finance Minister also said that the Centre has made efforts to fulfil the commitments in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, which is already ten years old but remained unfulfilled.
"Recognising the state's need for capital, we will facilitate special financial support through multilateral agencies. In the current FY, Rs 15,000 crore will be arranged with additional amounts in future years. Our govt is fully committed to the early completion and financing of the Polavaram irrigation project which is the lifeline for Andhra Pradesh and its farmers," she added.
Essentially, it means Andhra Pradesh would get loans to build its capital and not grants from the Centre as expected and promised by Telugu Desam and Jana Sena after the formation of the NDA government at the Centre.
Coming to Bihar, she announced the setting up of new power projects including setting up of a new 2400 MW power plant at Pirpainti in Bihar will be taken up at the cost of Rs 21,400 crores.
New airports, medical colleges and sports infrastructure in Bihar will be constructed. The requests of the Bihar government for external assistance from multilateral development banks will be expedited.
However, Chandrababu Naidu said the support from the central government will go a long way towards rebuilding Andhra Pradesh, without specifying on Amaravati's development.
"On behalf of the people of Andhra Pradesh, I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for recognising the needs of our state and focusing on a capital, Polavaram, industrial nodes and development of backward areas in AP (Andhra Pradesh) in the union budget of FY 24-25," he said in a post on X.
(With inputs from IANS)
