Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi today hit back at the Opposition, terming the State budget a complete game changer.
Majhi, while speaking on the Budget discussion, lashed out at the Leader of Opposition for dubbing the Budget as a ‘name changing budget’.
“In this budget, we have focused on transformation, development, governance and Odisha Asmita to realize the dream of a ‘Developed Odisha’. We have made a major contribution to building a ‘Viksit Bharat’ and working towards a roadmap of Vision-2036 to build a ‘Viksit Odisha’,” Majhi said.
He said that his government’s budget is the people’s budget. In the election campaign, his party had promised to bring qualitative changes in the lives of the people of Odisha. This budget is a reflection of their promises, Majhi said.
The budget emphasizes social justice, infrastructure improvement, healthcare for all, social security for the downtrodden, collective and sustainable growth through the empowerment of women, youth, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, minorities, disabled, and senior citizens.
Out of the total budget allocation of Rs 2.65 lakh crore for the financial year 2024-25, the program expenditure is estimated at Rs 1.55 lakh crore, which is 24 per cent more than that of the financial year 2023-24. Capital expenditure has been blocked at an average of Rs 58,195 crore which is 6.3 percent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). Odisha has the highest proportion of capital expenditure in the total budget compared to all the major states of the country, the CM said.
Reacting to LoP’s remarks on the budget as “Name Changing Budget”, CM Majhi said that the previous government was the Jumla one, which was announcing schemes for vote bank. Many projects were stopped soon after implementation. So the people replaced that government. Our government is giving priority and due respect to all Odia Statesmaen and great persons.
Many Odia statesmen have contributed significantly to the Odia language, history, culture, social service, freedom struggle and the creation of a separate province. So, the government has replaced many schemes after their names in order to give them fitting tributes, Majhi added.
