Orissa seeks grant for more sectors

With a view to accelerate the pace of development in the state, the chief minister Naveen Patnaik has requested for assistance from the 13th Finance Commission for three additional sectors.

During his meeting with Dr Vijay L. Kelkar, Chairman, 13th Finance Commission in New Delhi toady, Patnaik mentioned that the state government intends to initiate special development projects in tribal districts of Orissa particularly in two identified areas i.e. nutrition for young children and education of tribal boys and girls.

Though the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) are playing a key place in the village community where various services are delivered, several anganwadi centres are functioning without their own buildings. Therefore, the state proposes to set up 1671 anganwadi centre buildings at a cost of Rs 125 crore in Orissa from the Finance Commission grant.

He desired that there should be more residential accommodation in tribal areas for boys and girls. He said, by pooling the resources from various sources, the state government has successfully executed a programme for setting up of 1000 hostels for one lakh ST and SC girls in the tribal sub-plan areas.

Since the state government proposes to set up 400 more hostels for S.T. boys and girls in the tribal districts at a cost of Rs.200 crore, the Finance Commission should provide assistance for the same.

Further, he expressed his concern that although Orissa pioneered a reform programme in the power sector and privatization of distribution system in the state, it is being penalized by being deprived of the benefit of the restructured APDRP scheme of the Government of India (GoI) which envisages a total outlay of Rs. 51,577 crore during 11th plan.

As the assistance under APDRP is not applicable for private distribution companies, to make the distribution sector efficient and sustainable, the state government plans infusion of funds to the tune of Rs. 600 crore for system improvement and upgradation of the distribution infrastructure of the power sector in the state so as to provide better services to the consumers.

The chief minister requested that this may be shared by the Finance Commission (Rs.200 crore), state government (Rs.100 crore), Gridco (Rs 147 crore) and the 3 distribution companies (Rs 153 crore). The proposed investment is expected to result in reduction of AT &C loss besides ensuring an uninterrupted quality power supply to the consumers of the state.

It may be noted, the Orissa government had already sought Rs 2, 20, 782 crore grant from the 13th Finance Commission for a period of 5 years from 2010 to 2015.