In the face of opposition slogans in the Bihar Assembly on Tuesday, the Chief Minister responded, "Nitish Kumar 'murdabad' because we are giving treatment to everyone through medical facilities. You wanted everyone to die".
Earlier in the day, the Nitish Kumar government presented a Rs 2.79 lakh crore budget, claiming that the state's finances were in "good shape" with a growth rate of well above 10%, the "highest" in the country. Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, presenting the budget to the state assembly, said it was a source of pride for Bihar that its growth rate of "10.64 percent" was also significantly higher than the national average.
"We support the state's overall development. We were able to lift 2.5 crore people out of poverty in the current fiscal year," Choudhary, who is in charge of finance, was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
He presented the budget amid a commotion caused by members of the opposition, who marched into the well and later staged a walkout, shouting slogans like "palturam hosh mein aao (Mr turncoat, come back to your senses)".
It is to be noted, the budget was presented a day after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who abandoned the RJD-led 'Mahagathbandhan' and joined the BJP-led NDA, won a trust vote.
Choudhary also cited a significant reduction in maternity deaths as one of the state's major achievements, stating that it has "fallen by 47%, which is remarkable by all standards."
The state's budget estimate for the next fiscal year was Rs 2,78,725.72 crore, an increase of Rs 16,840 crore over the current fiscal year.
Out of the total expenditure, Rs one lakh crore was set aside for "annual scheme outlay," with the education department receiving the highest share (22.20 percent), followed by rural development (13.84%).
The estimated health expenditure is 7.41% of the annual scheme outlay, while 1.88 percent will be kept for "backward classes and most backward classes welfare".
Although the budget document claimed that the state's finances "were in good shape," it acknowledged that the fiscal deficit, at 5.97 percent of the GSDP, was significantly higher than "the prescribed conditional limit of 3.5 percent."
On the other hand, for the following year, "the state is again likely to generate a revenue surplus and fiscal deficit is likely to be contained at 2.98 per cent of state GDP, that is within the FRBM limits of three per cent" .
The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act of 2003 establishes a goal for the government to promote financial discipline in the economy.