"Positive and welcome": Bihar CM Nitish Kumar hails Union Budget 2024

Patna (Bihar) [India], February 1 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday hailed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government and said the Union Budget 2024-25 is 'positive and welcoming'.
Nitish Kumar, the Chief of the Janata Dal (United) that broke its ties with the Opposition bloc INDIA recently also lauded the Centre for increasing the amount of loans for higher education.
"The interim budget presented by the Central Government is positive and welcome. The amount of loans for higher education has been increased in the budget, which will facilitate the youth to get higher education. With the opening of three new Railway Economic Corridors, the country's economic development will be possible at a faster pace," he said.
Nitish further said that the central government's decision to launch a special housing scheme for the middle class is a welcome step.
"Under this, people living in rented houses and slums will be able to get benefits," he added.
The Bihar Chief Minister further said that employment will be created in a larger number in the rural areas by increasing the amount of the MGNREGA scheme.
"Also, for the development of industries, a one-year relaxation in the tax slab of start-ups will give impetus to industrial development work and increase employment opportunities for the youth. The increase in the budget of MGNREGA will increase employment opportunities in rural areas also," Nitish Kumar added.
The government said that the Budget was presented with a focus on economic policies that foster growth, facilitate inclusive development, improve productivity, and create opportunities for various sections while noting that it will pay utmost attention to the eastern region including states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and West Bengal to make them growth engines as part of goal to make India a developed country by 2047.
No change was proposed in the tax rates in the interim budget with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcing that the government will form a high-powered committee for an extensive consideration of the challenges arising from fast population and that it will present a white paper on the economic performance of 10 years of BJP-led government compared to previous 10 years of Congress-led UPA government.
This was the last budget of the Modi government in its second term with Lok Sabha polls expected in April-May this year. Sitharaman, who presented her sixth budget in Lok Sabha, expressed confidence in the BJP-led NDA coming to power again.
Opposition parties slammed the budget with Congress leader P Chidambaram stating that the Finance Minister had not talked about unemployment and that the fundamental flaw in the NDA's approach to the economy and governance is that "it is biased in favour of the rich".
"It is a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich," he alleged. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said the interim budget lacked accountability and vision.
In his reaction, Chidambaram said the Finance Minister did not acknowledge" the rampant unemployment" and did not utter a word on how the government intended to address the problem.
"By deliberate neglect over the last 10 years, the government has destroyed the demographic dividend story and dashed the hopes of millions of youth and their families," he said.
Kharge said, "There was nothing for the poor, lower middle-class, and middle-class citizens in the interim budget" and the government did not state how many of the promises it had made had been fulfilled.
TMC MP Santanu Sen said there is nothing in the interim budget and "there is no direction,".
"There is no mention of poverty, no discussion to halt in employment," he said.