Which states get special status?
Five conditions are examined for granting special status to a state –
i. The state should be in hilly or inaccessible areas,
ii. The population should be less, concentrated in a few places or the state should have a large population of scheduled tribes,
iii. It should be a border state from where there is/can be contact with neighboring countries,
iv. The state should be lacking in economic structure and infrastructure, or
v. It should be economically backward, with the least possibility of state revenue.
A group of ministers was formed to examine these things on Bihar and it had also submitted its report on 30 march 2012 (twelve years ago now). In this report (which was from the era of Congress-led rule), Bihar's demand for special state status was rejected. It is also worth noting that LJP's stand on such matters has been very clear. Shambhavi Chaudhary, who became an mp for the first time, clearly said that constitutionally there is no provision for the status of a special state, but she believes that special provisions will be made for bihar considering the strength with which bihar has stood with the current ruling coalition.
Bihar has been allocated Rs 58900 crore across many projects in the Budget 2024. There has also been an announcement to build three expressways and a power plant in the state. 26 thousand crores are being given for the construction of roads and a provision of Rs 21400 crore has been made for the power plant. Apart from this, the mention of floods that come almost every year in bihar has probably come for the first time in the Union Budget. A provision of Rs 11500 crore has been made in the budget for flood control. There are also schemes like construction of roads that do not break due to floods. Apart from these, separate announcements have also been made for the development of airport, medical college, stadium, industrial hub, Mahabodhi corridor, tourism facilities in Nalanda and Rajgir. A two-lane bridge will be built on the Ganga river in Buxar.
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