Budget fails to address demonetisation concerns: Naveen Patnaik

Union Budget 2017-18 is a mixed bag falls short of expectations on many counts, says Patnaik

The Union Budget for 2017-18 has failed to address the concerns of the common people in the aftermath of the demonetisation drive, thus falling short of the people's expectations, said chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

"People at large took the brunt of impact of demonetisation and I was expecting something spectacular for the common man in the Union Budget. However, the Union Budget 2017-18 is a mixed bag falls short of expectations on many counts. Not much has been done to address the adverse impact of demonetisation", Patnaik said in his reaction to the Budget.

He said the Budget lacks provisions relating to development of the KBK (Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput) region, opening of bank branches in un-banked gram panchayats and meeting the development aspirations of Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribes community.

Commenting on the scheme related transfers from Centre to the states, Patnaik said this has been increased at a meagre rate of 5.5 per cent over the previous Budget considering the real term impact of inflation.

The chief minister complained that the allocation of funds for schemes relating to rural roads, rural drinking water, education, mid-day meal programme and urban development is almost stagnant.

He, however, welcomed some of the measures for the farm sector especially in diary processing and infrastructure development fund to be set up in the National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (Nabard). These measures are in line with our development priorities, said Patnaik.

For railway infrastructure projects, Odisha has been allocated Rs 5102 crore compared to its demand for Rs 5870 crore. The allocation for Railways is higher by nine per cent over the previous Budget.