Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, February 14, 2020: The Odisha government under its 5T governance model is planning to conduct comprehensive mineral resource mapping of the entire state to assess the quantum of mineral resources, its valuation and development potential.

Addressing the Budget session of Odisha legislature, Odisha Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal on Friday said, “In addition, it has also been proposed for setting up of a world-class core sample laboratory besides development of selected villages by OMC (Odisha Mining Corporation) Ltd as Smart Villages akin to Smart Cities. The revenue from mineral royalty up to December 2019 is Rs 7,747.67 crore which is about seven per cent more than the collection during the same period last year.”

Enlisting the achievements of the Naveen Patnaik-led government, he said that consultative governance is at the core of the growth trajectory.

“Abiding by the suggestions received from the people and working ceaselessly towards providing totally citizen centric governance is now the ‘Mo Sarkar’ initiative of my government which is driven by the force of five touchstones – Technology, Transparency, Teamwork, Time and Transformation – that have now become the moving spirit of governance. My government’s new initiatives like 5T and ‘Mo Sarkar’ are formulated and vigorously being implemented keeping this in mind”, he added.

Reaffirming his government’s commitment to KALIA (or Krushak Assistance for Livelihood & Income Augmentation) scheme, the Governor said it has been envisaged to extend the benefits of the scheme to five million small and marginal farmers as well as 25 million landless agricultural households.

The KALIA programme is designed to benefit the low-income group population connected to farming with various packages along with KALIA scholarship scheme to support children of KALIA beneficiaries pursuing professional and technical courses. Moreover, under KALIA scheme, interest rate has been slashed from one per cent to zero on crop loans.

Stating that his government is committed to increase investment in priority sector within prudent fiscal norms and at the same time, it is capable of increasing capital investment to about five per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

“My government has achieved debt sustainability from a position of debt stress. The Debt-GSDP ratio has been brought down from 50.7 per cent in 2002-03 to 16.8 per cent in 2018-19. The interest payment to revenue receipt ratio has been brought down from 40.2 per cent in 2001-02 to 5.8 per cent in 2018-19. Prudent level of debt stock has given us an opportunity to go for higher capital investment for accelerating the growth momentum”, the Governor said.