The Congress on Tuesday dubbed the Odisha Budget as “regressive and hollow”, saying the BJD Government’s assertion of about 5.15 per cent increase in the budgetary outlay is misleading as there is no hike in real terms. PCC president Prasad Harichandan told reporters, “Despite the Government’s claim of raising the Budget size for 2015-16 by about 5.15 per cent to Rs 84,487.77 crore from Rs 80,139.8 crore in 2014-15, in real terms there was no hike in view of impact of inflation.”
The increase in budgetary outlay also failed to neutralise the inflationary impact if one takes into account around seven-per cent inflation, Harichandan said. “Practically, there has been no increase in the budget size and rather the outlay has been decreased,” he observed. Terming provisions and figures shown in the budget as eyewash to mislead people, he said the BJD Government has not only weakened the State’s economy but also pushed it to a state of bankruptcy.
Harichandan said that as per official statistics, the State faces a debt burden of over Rs 56,640 crore. Even the Budget estimates including that for the State Plan are revised downwards in the current fiscal, making the present exercise regressive and hollow. He accused the Government of neglecting several major sectors in the Budget. Making a separate Agriculture Budget is of no meaning when farmers are forced to undertake distress sale of paddy, he said.
The Government, appears to have forgotten about its promise of providing free power to farmers, he said, adding that while agriculture records a negative growth, there is no provision to deal with suicide of farmers. The health sector has received a lip service at a time when different parts of the State are hit by diseases like jaundice and swine flu, he said, adding that there is no concrete measure to tackle growing unemployment.
Harichandan said there is also no provision to remove regional imbalance, provide safe drinking water to all and spread irrigation. He wanted to know whether there is any provision to ensure agriculture loans to farmers at a two-per cent interest as promised by the BJD in its poll manifesto. Interestingly, the BJD Government launched its own schemes in those sectors where Central programmes already exist, he pointed out.
like the Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, the State Government started the Chief Minsiter’s Gram Sadak Yojana and it plans to bring its own food security regulation instead of implementing the Centre’s Food Security Act, he said.