Bhubaneswar: Rs 1.32L crore budget is BJD's poll propaganda Congress Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Odisha finance minister Sashi Bhusan Behera on Thursday presented the vote-on account Budget for 2019-20 in the state Assembly with a proposed expenditure of Rs1,32,660 crore.

The vote-on-account for the first four months of this fiscal has been pegged at Rs56,921 crore.

While the BJP and Congress termed the vote-on-account as propagandist, the ruling Biju Janata Dal described it as “development oriented”.

“It’s a pro-women, pro-Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe, development oriented budget. Actually, it’s a vote on account for four months,” said Mr Behera.

With about a month to go for the Assembly polls, the ruling party announced no new schemes. The government made highest allocation under Kalia (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation) scheme amounting to Rs4,461 crore.

Besides, Rs2,935 crore was allocated under BASUDHA and Rs1,777 crore for Parbati Giri Mega lift irrigation project. This apart, Rs1,300 crore each was allocated for state road and irrigation infrastructure development. The next highest allocation was made for the Rs1/kg rice amounting to Rs1,028 crore.

Allocations under other schemes: PEETHA ('Rs400 crore), Mission Shakti (Rs301 crore), Mamata (Rs305 crore), Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (Rs864 crore), state share in Railway projects (Rs410 crore), Biju Setu Yojana (Rs500 crore), Mukhyamantri Sadak Yojana (Rs350 crore), Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana (Rs500 crore) and Biju Yuva Bahini (Rs105 crore).

“Budget should be based on facts. As it was not so, we staged a walkout. It was propaganda of schemes keeping the upcoming election in view,” said Congress legislature party leader Narasingha Mishra.

The BJP too criticised the government on the same lines.

Mr Behera, in his speech, stated that the state has attained growth rate of 8 percent as against the national average of 7.1 percent. “We hope to achieve a growth rate of 8.5 in the next fiscal,” he said.