Leader of Opposition and former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday alleged that the first budget of the BJP government presented in the Assembly recently is a repetition of almost 80 per cent of the schemes introduced by his government.
While participating in the Budget discussions, Patnaik further asserted that the state government has allocated more than 80 per cent of the funds in the budget for the schemes introduced by the previous BJD government.
“This budget saw 80 per cent of our schemes being repeated. It shows the robustness, pro-people and progressive character of the schemes designed and implemented by the BJD government. The rest 20 per cent resource allocation is what they will use to implement their manifesto promises to the people of Odisha,” said Patnaik.
The BJD supremo said that the Budget for 2024-25 is a ‘Name Changer’ not a ‘Game Changer’ as claimed by the BJP government.
He accused Chief Minister Mohan Majhi of changing the names of 45 schemes of the previous BJD government.
He stated that BJP in its manifesto had promised to provide Rs 50,000 to every woman in the state under the Subhadra scheme.
“More than 2 crore women are there in Odisha. Further, this was promised to be given in two years. You will need Rs 1 lakh crore to fulfill this promise. You have kept only Rs 10,000 crore in this Budget. This will cover less than 10 per cent women of Odisha. What about the rest 1 crore 80 women?” Patnaik wondered.
“The BJP promised to increase pension to Rs 3,500 hundred per month. There are about 50 lakh pensioners in the state, out of which hardly 1 lakh pensioners will benefit as per the budget allocation,” he added.
The LoP alleged that the budgetary allocation earmarked for the social security pensions for the elderly, physically disabled and distressed persons is insufficient.
He criticised the government for paltry allocation to fulfil one of its major poll promises, Rs 3,100 per quintal MSP for farmers.
“The BJP promised Rs 3,100 per quintal MSP for farmers. The allocation kept in the Budget will not be adequate to cover even 30 per cent farmers. How do you plan to cover the remaining lakhs of farmers of Odisha?” Patnaik questioned.
He alleged that BJP cheated the people as the government will fail to provide 300 units of free ‘bijli’ (electricity) to all in the next five years which the BJP leaders had promised during the election campaigns. He also targeted the state government over the ‘paltry amount’ allocated for ‘Lakhpati Didi’ scheme and for the industrial corridor connecting Rourkela Sambalpur Paradip and Dhamra by June 2027.