PATNA, Jan. 11 -- The Bihar government has sought a dedicated relief and disaster resilient package for flood management and rehabilitation of displaced people during deluge in north Bihar district during a pre-budget meeting of state finance ministers with the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday in New Delhi. At the meeting, the state finance minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said that the package was necessary for taking concrete steps for flood management like getting forecasts about floods through satellite imagery, GIS mapping, real time monitoring and other measures. Highlighting how Bihar continues to face problems of floods despite witnessing high economic growth in the state in past few decades, the state FM said the package would also prove beneficial in long term flood measures like strengthening of the embankments , interlinking of rivers for retention of excessive water so that the intensity of floods could be minimised and sufficient water is stored for irrigation. The state finance minister's speech was issued in an official release. More importantly, the state FM also raised the demand for allowing Bihar to take loans from the market by enhancing the cap of three percent on the state gross domestic product( GSDP) by another two percent so that the state could increase its market borrowing. At present , the state can make market borrowing upto three percent of the GSDP as part of the FRBM ( fiscal responsibility management act). " This enhanced cap would help in boosting the state's development in a faster manner through high fund investment and should remain in force till the time the state's per capita income comes at par with the national per capita income," the minister said at the meeting. Significantly, the state FM also sought guidance and institutional help from the centre for the newly introduced seven resolves third edition for giving a boost to the state infrastructure and other core sectors. Besides, the state FM said the centre's bid to give interest free loans and advocated that the limit of untied loans upto Rs. 50,000 crore should be enhanced to Rs.1 lakh crore for Bihar so that various ongoing social and economic activities including various schemes get a boost for state's faster development. Another major point raised by the state FM was the need for centre's big support to encourage setting up of industries in the state so that Bihar having rich resources could create more employment and also give a boost to its economy. The NDA during its pre-poll campaign had made a strong pitch for bringing industry in the state and also has promised of giving one crore jobs in next five years. Lastly, the state FM also pitched hard for getting schemes from the centre which encourages new scientific methods of farming through artificial intelligence(AI), drones and blockchain. Meanwhile, the state government has already started preparation for finalised the state budget for the year 2026-27 to be placed in the last week of February or March first week during the upcoming budget session of the state legislature. There are indications the state budget for the year 2026-27 is likely to rise moderately with the size of the budget outlay to be around Rs.3.20 lakh crore to Rs.3.24 lakh crore as against the current fiscal year's budget outlay of Rs. 3.17 lakh crore, officials in the know said....