Odisha to raise Biju KBK fund corpus

Odisha government today decided to enhance the Biju KBK fund from Rs 120 crore to Rs 250 crore for continuance of the Revised Long Term Action Plan (RLTAP) for the development of poverty-stricken KBK region of the state.
The decision in this regard was taken by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who on October 22 had urged Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley not to stop funding the RLTAP for KBK region, as it was the lifeline for the inhabitants of the eight tribal-dominated districts.
However, the state government decided to continue the development of the Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi (KBK) scheme from its own resources.

The districts to be benefitted from the scheme included Koraput, Nabarangpur, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Sonepur, Balangir, Kalahandi and Nuapada.
The Centre, however, did not allocate any funding for the RLTAP in its annual budget for the year 2015-16.
The state also had raised the issue at the regional meeting of NITI Aayog organized in Kolkata on May 12.