Pradeep Kumar Panda
Finance and Excise Minister Niranjan Pujari presented Odisha State Budget for the financial year 2020-21. The budget is first of it’s kind in many aspects.
Odisha is First state in the country to present Climate budget. This budget is green budget as Budget was presented by minister from iPad and is available on mobile app saving wastage of 75,000 paper and numerous tree.
The Total outlay of the budget is Rs. 1,50,000 crore out of which Capital Expenditure is Rs. 74,000 crore.
The budget is a reformist and pro farmer budget. It has welfare measures for all class and sections of society. Climate budget, nutrition budget and gender budget will help in Development of society in optimum manner.
GSDP growth rate is projected at 6.16% at constant prices which is way above National average. Odisha economy is growing at faster rate than nation since a long period of time.
The allocation of Rs. 16,809 crore for Agriculture sector will spur Agriculture growth and boost farmers. Irrigation will cover 1,84,000 hectares of land. The much acclaimed KALIA scheme gets allocation of Rs. 3195 crore.
Rs. 7,700 crore for Health sector will ensure good health and wellbeing of 4.5 crore odias. Recently Odisha has achieved success in reduction of Infant Mortality Rate, Maternal Mortality Rate, stunting, wasteing etc. Odisha Cardiac Care scheme is newly launched.
Rs. 22,631 crore allocation for Education and Skill Development will help in achieving higher literacy and self employment. Rs. 220 crore allocation for Skill in Odisha is a welcome measure.
Rs. 106 Crore is allocated for Odisha Millet Mission while Rs. 700 crore for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and Rs. 150 crore for Agriculture Extension. Rs. 540 crore is allocated for Parbati Giri Yojana and Rs. 635 crore is set for Nabakrushna Chaudhary Development Scheme. Rs. 1211 crore is allocated for Fishery and Dairy sector including Rs. 200 crore for blue Revolution.
Rs. 360 crore is allocated for Biju Krushak Bikash Yojana while Rs. 180 crore for Jalanidhi Yojana and Rs. 360 crore for Nirmal yojana.
Odisha has been model State for Disaster management. Disaster management planning, response and recovery is well appreciated at International level by UN. Rs. 3200 crore is allocated for Disaster management.
Rs. 1000 crore is set aside for Development of SCB Medical College, Cuttack. Rs. 400 crore is given for Adarsh School while Rs.10 crore for Mo School and Rs. 40 crore for Mo College For social security, Rs. 1718 crore is sanctioned under Madhubabu Pension Yojana.
House for all is priority of government. Rs. 500 crore is sanctioned for Housing Development while Rs. 3962 crore for Biju Pucca Ghara Yojana. Rs. 3250 crore is allocated for drinking water project under Basudha yojana.
Rs. 4000 crore is allocated for Energy sector. Focus will be generation of more renewable energy.
Rs. 3200 crore is allocated for Development and transformation for Puri as world heritage city. Rs. 150 crore is allocated for development of Lingaraj Temple, Bhubaneswar.
Rs. 1501 crore is allocated for MGNREGA. Point worth noting is that Union Government has reduced allocation for MGNREGA this year by 13%.
Rs.150 crore is allocated for development of OUAT as Centre of Excellence for Agriculture research.
Eco Retreat was a grand success this year and will be conducted every year. Rs. 80 crore is assigned for Samuka Belabhumi Yojana.
Odisha government is taking measures for Home delivery of all government services by August 2020. Overall the budget is reformist and pro farmer with schemes for all sections of society.
(The author is a New Delhi based Economist)