Congress boycotts Governor's address in Odisha Assembly

Opposition Congress today boycotted Governor S C Jamir's address to Odisha Assembly accusing the state government of not apprising the governor of the real situation.

In his address, Jamir said Odisha's economy would grow at the rate of 9% during the 12th plan period as the state has acheived the highest reduction in poverty among all other states as ratio dropped by 24.6% points.

"The real per capital income in Odisha at 2004-05 prices has increased from Rs 14,862 in 1999-2000 t Rs 26,900 in 2011-12, an incease of over 77% during the period," he said.

The Governor was addressing the Assembly on the first day of the brief session held to pass vote-on-account ahead of the general elections.

As soon as Jamir ended the obituary reference, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh delivered a parallel speech while his Congress MLAs stood in their respective seats protesting the Governor's address.

The Congress MLAs also displayed posters accusing the BJD government of making Odisha the poorest state in the country.

"The state government is putting wrong things in the mouth of the Governor," Singh told reporters outside the House.

In his about 80 minute speech, the Governor claimed that Odisha government was confronted by a serious financial crisis when it came to power. The government started its innings with a negative Rs 370 crores of opening balance and an estimated budget deficit of Rs 1,400 crore.

Claiming that the state government has made remarkable accomplishments in accelerating economic growth and reducing poverty, Jamir said the state has recorded an average annual growth of 8.2% during the 11th plan at 2004-05 prices.

Besides increase in the state's plan size over the years, Jamir said the state government had been able to reduce the net debt stock from 46.48% of GSDP in 2001-02 to 17.87% of GSDP in 2011-12, thereby achieving the desired level of Debt-GSDP ratio of 25% recommended by the 13th Finance Commission.