Samikhsya Bureau
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday said the Union Budget has hit the state hard by reducing the fund transfer recommended by the 14th Finance Commission.
Reacting to the Budget, Patnaik said that the 14th Finance Commission recommended total transfer of Rs.1.84,070 crore during the award period from 2015 to 2020. “However, based on the actual receipt of 2015-18, revised estimate for 2018-19 Budget, the state is going to receive only Rs.1,57,828 crore. Thus the state will be hit with a shortfall of Rs.26,342 crore,” the chief minister said.
The Odisha chief minister said he was disappointed that the Budget did not revised the national social security schemes like old age pension and other pensions. “The state is covering 48 lakh beneficiaries with Rs.500 per month while the Centre is giving Rs.200 per month for 20 lakh beneficiaries only,” he said.
He was also disappointed with the allocation for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Caste welfare, both in infrastructure and education. “We have been requesting the Centre to restore the Scholarship Fund for the ST students which has not been done,” he said.
Patnaik said that as the allocation for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme is lower than the allocation in the revised estimate in the Budget, it will adversely affect the timely wage payment.
Besides, he said, the budgets for rural connectivity, rural housing and drinking water have been reduced or have remained at previous level. “This is not encouraging,” he said.
Though Patnaik welcomed the tax benefits planned for middle and lower income groups and direct benefit transfer proposed for small and marginal farmers “on the lines of our KALIA scheme” in the Budget, he said that it would have benefited the farmers more if the quantum of assistance was equal or more than our KALIA scheme – Rs.10,000 per year. But the Budget had nothing for the landless poor, sharecroppers and farmers in distress, added.
