Odisha CM presents Rs 2.90-lakh crore budget for FY'26, focus on 'transformative' sectors

Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Monday presented a Rs 290lakh crore state budget for the 202526 fiscal with focus on infrastructure agriculture and irrigationMajhi who also holds the finance portfolio said the budgetrsquos special thrust is on transformative sectors like infrastructure urban development agriculture and irrigation capital investment portled development industrialisation and sportsThis was the first fullfledged budget of the BJP government after the party came to power in the state last year Majhi had presented an interim budget of Rs 265 lakh crore for the 202425 fiscal in July last yearSpeaking on the provisions of the budget he said an outlay of Rs 170000 crore was meant for programme expenditure which is more than 5862 per cent of the total budget sizeThe capital outlay was Rs 65012 crore which is 611 per cent of the GSDPldquoThe proportion of capital expenditure to total budget is the highest among all major states in the countryrdquo Majhi claimedThe chief minister said the allocation of Rs 37838 crore for agriculture and allied sectors is an increase of about 12 per cent over the previous yearldquoThe revenue surplus is projected at 3 per cent of the GSDP while the fiscal deficit is projected at 32 per cent of the GSDP Yearend debt stock is expected to remain at 127 per cent of the GSDP Therefore the annual budget is fully Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management compliantrdquo he saidNoting that around 48 per cent of the statersquos workforce depends on agriculture and 80 per cent of people live in rural areas Majhi said his government allocated Rs 37838 crore for the farm and allied sectorsHe also said the estimates for the sector include an allocation of Rs 2020 crore for CM Kisan Yojana and Rs 600 crore for the Shree Anna Abhiyan for the promotion of milletsAmong other departments finance got the maximum of Rs 6351191 crore followed by Rs 3118547 crore for school amp mass education Rs 28451 crore for panchayat raj amp drinking water Rs 22741 crore for health amp family welfare Rs 15223 crore for women amp child development and Rs 14894 crore for water resourcesMajhi announced at least 16 new initiatives in the budget which include a Rs 30crore Shree Jagannath Darshan Yojana for devotees with limited financial resourcesldquoSuch devotees can travel to Puri visit the Shree Jagannath Temple and have the lsquoMahaprasadrsquo free of costrdquo Majhi saidHe also announced the Maa Tarini Temple complex development plan in Keonjhar with an estimated outlay of Rs 225 croreThe CM allocated Rs 820 crore for tourism with focus on infrastructure development community empowerment and sustainable tourism practicesSome of the other initiatives announced in the budget include the Antyodaya Gruha Yojana Rs 2603 crore Subhadra Surakhya Yojana Rs 153 crore the Southern Odisha Development Council Rs 200 crore Swachha Odisha programme Rs 261 crore and Samrudha Sahara Rs 400 croreThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever