Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi, who also holds the portfolio of Finance Department on Thursday tabled maiden BJP Government’s budget with a total outlay Rs 2.65 lakh crore, a jump by 15 per cent from the last year’s Rs 2.30 lakh crore allocation.

The maiden budget of Mohan Majhi Government has accorded additional focus on health, agriculture even as the new government has gone ahead with rebranding previous government’s flagship programmes.

The budget amply attempted to implement the promises that the ruling party had promised the voters in the recently concluded polls.

Laying focus on the health sector, the budget allocated Rs 3056 crore for Gopabandhu Jana Arogya Yojana while rebranding the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY), successfully implemented by previous Naveen Patnaik Government. The new scheme was a rechristened form of BJD Government’s BSKY.

There was an allocation of Rs 500 for Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), which the previous Government had opted not to implement.

Keeping his election promises, the government made budgetary allocation of Rs 10,000 crore for implementation of the Subhadra Yojana, which the BJP had promised apparently to woo women voters.

“The Government is committed to giving boost to women entrepreneurship, empowerment and financial independence. Rs 10,000 crore has been planned in the budget for implementation of the scheme,” CM Majhi said while laying the budget on the floor of the Assembly.

With the launch of the Subhadra scheme, the budgetary allocation for Women and Child Development department is set to increase by almost three fold from Rs 6224 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 17,942 crore in 2024-25.

Emphasizing agrarian sector, the budget increased the outlay for agriculture sector by allocating Rs 33,919 crore in 2024-25 in comparison to Rs 24,829 crore in 2023-24, which is higher by 36.61 per cent.

The new government is all set to implement the CM-KISAN scheme with an allocated Rs 1935 crore. The budget also stressed on millet development and farm insurance scheme with budgetary provision of Rs 649 crore and Rs 600 crore respectively.

With the implementation of CM-KISAN scheme, Patnaik government’s flagship programme Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme is destined to be given a burial.

CM Majhi in his budget speech announced that paddy will be purchased from farmers at Rs 3,100 per quintal, at a rate higher than the Minimum Support Price of Rs 2,300 per quintal. The MSP hike was a major poll promise of BJP.

The Government also announced a hike in grants for elderly and persons with disability in the budget presentation.

“As committed by us, the monthly pension of senior citizens aged over 80 and persons with 80 per cent or more disability would be increased to Rs 3500 under the both Madhu Babu Pension Yojana and National Social Assistance Programme in the first phase,” CM Majhi said.

The Majhi government announced the launch of a new scheme ‘Godabarisha Mishra Adarsh Prathamika Vidyalaya’ for imparting quality teaching at primary level for children in rural and semi urban areas.

The CM also announced ‘Madho Singh Haath Kharcha’ scheme by an estimated 3 lakh tribal students will reap benefits.

The launch of the scheme assumes significance given the fact that dropout rate among tribal students is quite high in Odisha.