Meme fest starts, jokes galore as FM Nirmala Sitharaman gives Nitish Kumar’s Bihar ₹26,000 crore in Budget 2024

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced several development projects for Bihar in Budget 2024. She revealed that Bihar will receive new airports, medical colleges and highways.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar played a major role in forming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s coalition government for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

FM Sitharaman has now offered a ₹26,000-crore allocation for the state's infrastructure projects like the Patna-Purnea Expressway, Buxar-Bhagalpur Highway, Bodh Gaya-Rajgir-Vaishali-Darbhanga route and a new two-lane bridge over the Ganga in Buxar.

As soon as this was announced, social media was flooded with “Bihar” memes. Take a look at some of those:

“New airports, medical colleges and sports infrastructure in Bihar will be constructed. The requests of the Bihar government for external assistance from multilateral development banks will be expedited,” said FM Sitharaman in her Budget 2024 speech.

Finance Minister Sitharaman stated that the Vishnupad Temple in Gaya and the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya would be supported to develop into world-class heritage sites similar to the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor. She also mentioned that the Centre would aid in developing an industrial node at Gaya as part of the Amritsar-Kolkata industrial corridor.

The finance minister announced an additional Rs.11,500 crore for flood control measures. She also revealed plans for power projects, including a new 2400 MW power plant at Pirpainti costing Rs.21,400 crore.

Budget 2024: Poorvodaya

FM Sitharaman, in her Budget 2024 proposal, also introduced the ‘Poorvodaya’ initiative to boost development in India’s eastern region. ‘Poorvodaya’ (The Rise of the East) will focus on the all-round development of the country's eastern region, covering Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the Indian Middle Class is not impressed with FM Sitharaman as Budget 2024 does not offer any significant benefit for salaried employees. Several memes are being shared on social media platforms on this issue as well.