Depriving states of their legitimate share is unfair: Naveen

Claiming that depriving states of their legitimate share is "unfair", Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said the cut in allocation for education and tribal welfare in the Union Budget was a "huge disappointment".
Patnaik, however, praised the Centre for enhancing allocation for agriculture, housing, drinking water and sanitation, urban development livelihood improvement programmes and road infrastructure sectors.
"This is in sync with our own policies," Patnaik said in his Budget 2016-17 reaction.
Alleging that it was a mismatch in the growth of net tax revenue to the Centre and tax devolution to the states, Patnaik said that the net tax to the Centre has been projected to increase by about three per cent from Rs 9.20 lakh crore in budget estimates for 2015-16 to Rs 9.48 lakh crore in the revised estimate.

When compared with the recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission, it was seen that the share of Odisha was less by about Rs 3,500 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 4,600 crore in 2016-17 from the recommended level, the Chief Minister said adding "Depriving the states of their legitimate share is rather unfair."
"Economy of our state will be stretched on account of less than anticipated transfer of resources from the Centre," Patnaik said, stressing the state has taken the right decision to place its budget after presentation of Union Budget. "Otherwise, it would have been an impractical guess work," he said.

As irrigation was the lifeline of agriculture, Patnaik said Odisha was expecting a huge jump in allocation for irrigation.

"However, it is hugely disappointing to note that there has been an insignificant increase under PMKSY, the flagship irrigation scheme of the Government of India, from Rs 5,300 crore to Rs 5,700 crore only for the entire country. For a realistic comparison, our state budget for water resources last year was more than Rs 6,500 crore," he said.
"Also, I am unable to understand the logic behind the huge cut in allocation for both primary and higher education sectors," Patnaik said.

"The allocation for tribal welfare under Article-275 (1) and TSP is almost stagnant. From the point of view of Odisha, this is a huge disappointment," he added.