Expressing scepticism that the Centre may slash central funds for Bihar, the state government on Tuesday vowed it will sustain development works by meeting deficit of funds with its own resources.
"Let the Centre reduce our state plan or funds under any other head, we will sustain development works by meeting revenue shortfall through our own resources," state Finance and Commercial Taxes minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said while replying to a debate on Bihar Appropriation (No 2) Bill, 2014. The JD(U) government would not let development activities and growth rate suffer, he said.
The minister also hit out at the BJP for painting a grim picture about the state's economy after the split between the erstwhile NDA allies JD(U) and BJP last year, and said the JD(U) government had sustained a high growth rate of around 14.4 per cent in the last fiscal. Even Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has acknowledged robust economic growth rate of Bihar and said as much in the survey report tabled in Parliament during the Budget Session, he said.
On another charge by opposition BJP lawmakers on most state government departments not spending anything in the first quarter of the current fiscal due to the Jitan Ram Manjhi government's lack of focus on economic development, Yadav said the allegation was outrageous as there was a Model Code of Conduct in place for three months for the general elections. The Election Commission guidelines allowed for withdrawal of funds from Treasury only for payment of salaries to government employees and other pressing expenditures, he said.
The Opposition was needlessly trying to cast aspersion on the state government over non-spending of funds when it knew well about the EC guidelines, Yadav rued.
The House later passed the Bihar Appropriation (No 2) Bill, 2014, by voice vote amid a walk out by BJP MLAs to clear decks for withdrawal of Rs 1,17,292.73 crore to meet revenue expenditure of Rs 92,172 crore and capital expenditure of Rs 25,120.73 crore.
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