Interim Budget 'election oriented': Orissa CM

The Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today termed the interim budget of the Union government for 2009-10 presented by Pranab Mukherjee in the parliament as ‘election oriented’.

“The Budget announced by the Central government pertains to first four months of the next fiscal and on the face of it, it looks like an election oriented budget,” Patnaik told the media persons at the state secretariat.

Patnaik, who left for New Delhi today to discuss the state’s annual plan outlay with the Planning Commission tomorrow, said there is nothing for Orissa in the Interim Budget. “As usual it has neglected the state,” he added.

 

He said, the Interim Railway Budget presented in the parliament three days back had also ignored the state’s interest. “In the Railway Budget, Orissa got nothing and I don’t know what a state like Orissa would get out of Interim Budget presented today,” he observed.

On his trip to New Delhi, the chief minister said, he will meet the member of the Planning Commission and will discuss about the finalisation of the state plan outlay for 2009-10. Regarding the size of the state plan outlay, Patnaik said, the state government will seek an outlay of Rs 9,500 crore for the next fiscal. If approved by the Planning Commission, the outlay will be Rs 2,000 crore more than the Rs 7,500 crore fixed for the current fiscal.

Meanwhile, Patnaik’s party Biju Janata Dal (BJD) came out strongly against the announcements made by the Central government in the Interim Budget.

In a statement, Jajnyeswar Babu, the secretary general of the BJD, said, what Pranab Mukherjee read out in the parliament today, was an election manifesto of the Congress party.

He said, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government which will stay in power for a few months in power, has made an outlay of Rs 9,53,235 crore in the Interim Budget for 2009-10. While the plan outlay is Rs 2,85,141 crore, the remaining Rs 6,68,883 crore is earmarked as non-plan expenditure. The Budget only emphasized on plans started with the names of Jawahar, Indira and Rajiv.

He criticised the government for announcing proposal to give loans to the farmers upto Rs 3 lakh at an interest rate of 7 per cent even as the Swaminathan committee had recommended the rate to be 4 per cent.

While the economy is reeling under recession and lakhs of youth are losing their jobs, there is no clear announcement to tackle the issue. Besides, the announcement to launch 15 new schemes for the minorities and setting up of 2 new IITs, 4 IIMs, is a poll gimmick by the UPA, he pointed out.

He wondered how the government will be able to spend Rs 8,000 crore for mid-day meal scheme, Rs 30,000 crore for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), Rs 13,000 crore for Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan (SSA) and Rs 7,400 crore for the drinking water scheme. Alleging that the UPA government failed to provide electricity to all villages by the end of 2009 as committed earlier, he asked how the government will be able to spend Rs 40,900 crore on this front within one and half month.