By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, February 18, 2020: Odisha Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari presented a Rs 1.50 lakh crore Budget for 2020-21 in the Assembly on Tuesday with agriculture and allied sector accounting for 13%.

Pujari also presented a separate Agriculture Budget of Rs 19,408 crore that promises to boost the socio-economic growth of the farmers. This is about three times that of 2013-14 budget (Rs 7000 crore).

“We propose a budgetary outlay of Rs 1,50,000 crore, which includes outlay of Rs 63,650 crore for administrative expenditure, Rs 74,000 crore for programme expenditure, Rs 3,200 crore for disaster response and Rs 7,145 crore for transfer to local bodies and development authorities,” Pujari said in his speech.

In the Agriculture Budget, Rs 3,195 crore was proposed to be allocated for KALIA scheme and Rs 705 crore interest-subsidy for agriculture loan to farmers.

Besides, Rs 150 crore is proposed for agricultural research, education and infrastructure, which is five times over last year’s allocation.

This is for the first time that Odisha switched to the digital method to reduce printing of documents for the Budget. Over 1,000 big trees were saved in the state”s bid to present a paperless Budget.

“With the state policy to promote industries and higher investment in infrastructure sector along with focus on social sector, the Odisha economy is estimated to grow in the range of 7 and 7.5 per cent during 2020-21,” he added.

The Budget has doubled the allocation for the health sector to Rs 7,700 crore while a new scheme – Odisha Cardiac Care Programme – has been proposed to be launched to expand the health services in the state.

For building healthcare infrastructure and services under the Mukhya Mantri Swasthya Seva Mission, the budget proposed Rs 578 crore. Besides, Rs 1,108 crore was allocated for the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana.

In order to transform SCB Medical College into a world-class facility and an AIIMS Plus integrated medical institution with 3,000 beds, the Minister proposed to invest more than Rs 1,000 crore over two years.

Besides, Rs 562 crore was earmarked for medical colleges. The budget also proposed an allocation of Rs 22,631 crore for the education and skill development sector.

In order to provide shelter to the poor, Rs 3,962 crore was proposed for coverage of PMAY Gramin and Biju Pucca Ghar and Rs 518 crore for urban housing.

An investment of Rs 5,543 crore for nutrition specific and Rs 25,571 crore for nutrition sensitive schemes was proposed.

While Rs 3,208 crore was proposed for Abadha Yojana for development of Puri, a new scheme under the Works Department with an outlay of Rs 50 crore has been envisaged for development of heritage sites, including Samaleswari Mandir, Hirakud Dam and other potential places and old monuments of tourist importance.