Tejashwi Yadav, the Leader of Opposition in Bihar, Thursday sought to dispel the perception among a section of the people that the state's budget size increased eight times only under the NDA government and claimed that it had increased as many times during the 15-year regime of RJD, his party.
Participating in a debate in the assembly on the 2021-22 Bihar budget in the assembly, Yadav said its size was Rs 3000 crore in 1990 which increased to Rs 24,000 crore, a growth of eight times, in 2005 when RJD was in power.
Similarly, the budget size increased from Rs 24000 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 2.11 lakh crore in 2019-20, again a eightfold growth under NDA rule in the the state, he said.
RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, Yadav's father, was the state chief minister in 1990. Rabri Devi, his mother later donned the mantle till Nitish Kumar assumed power in the state in November 2005.
"Thus, it is established from the data that the state's budget size increased by eight fold during 15 year regimes of both RJD and NDA," he said.
The growth was also the same for the union budget during the 2005-20 period, he said. It increased from Rs 4.53 lakh crore in 2005-06 to Rs 35 lakh crore in 2021-22.
This fact nullifies the propaganda and perception that have been created that the RJD regime under Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi was 'Jungle Raj' and had nothing to do with development of the state, Yadav said.
Claiming that the NDA government in thes state has been indulging in "jugglery of figures", the RJD leader said that Bihar had in fact witnessed decline of two per cent in revenue collection during 2005-06 to 2021-22.
The state government could barely spend Rs 70,000 crore out of the Rs 2.11 lakh crore of the sanctioned budget expenditure for 2020-21, he said and wondered whether the Nitish Kumar government will be able to spend Rs 1.43 lakh crore in the remaining one month of the current fiscal.
"This will lead to March loot," he alleged.
Citing Transparency India International (TII) data, Yadav said Bihar ranks second in the list of most corrupt states of the country. As per the TII 75 per cent of work is done only after paying bribes to government departments.
On the human development index front, the state ranked 32 during the Rabri Devi regime, but now is in the 36th position, Yadav, a former deputy chief minister said.
Hitting out at the NDA government of Nitish Kumar, he said it per the 2021-2022 budget that it will provide 20 lakh employment opportunities but it has not explained how it will be done. The NDA had also promised this during its election campaign for the 2020 state poll.
"Chief Minister (Kumar) says that he will never compromise on three Cs (crime, corruption and communalism). But he has reduced his party (JD-U) to a C grade party by compromising on his three Cs," he said.
Continuing his criticism, the RJD leader said the state's finance minister Tarkishore Prasad's budget speech was "nothing but a bunch of lies" and there is no governance in Bihar.
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