State wants IAY quota doubled

State wants IAY quota doubled
Expressbuzz, Jan 15, 2010
BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has reiterated its demand for a special package for the KBK (undivided Kalahandi, Balangir and Koraput) districts to accelerate the pace of development in the backward region.


The demand was raised in the memorandum submitted by Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei in the pre-budget meeting presided over by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi.

As the number of families below the poverty line (BPL) has increased in Orissa as per the Tendulkar committee’s report, the State Government has demanded that the quota under the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) be doubled and cost of the house enhanced from Rs 35,000 to Rs 60,000. Besides, it has requested the Centre to send the revised BPL guidelines soon so that the next survey can be undertaken at the earliest.

Other demands placed before the Centre include enhanced funding under the National Highway schemes and more provision for railway projects which are under construction. Orissa did not get a single project under the expressway scheme, which was finalised recently by the Centre.

Ghadei demanded that the royalty revision of minerals be enhanced to 20 per cent on ad valorem basis. This is a long-standing demand of the State and Orissa has lost hundreds of crores of rupees because of delay in the revision of royalty by the Centre.

The Finance Minister demanded that the guidelines of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) be revised keeping in view the interest of poor states like Orissa.

The memorandum maintained that as the impact of global recession is not yet over and a part of the arrear of the Sixth Pay Commission will be reflected in the next year’s budget, the required fiscal deficit should not be brought down suddenly to 3 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) as it may affect the path of recovery.

A transition path with fiscal deficit at 4 per cent of the GSDP for 2010-11, 3.5 percent for 2011-12 and the prescribed level of 3 per cent for 2012-13 should be adopted, it said.

The State Government has also demanded that debt relief of Rs 381.9 crore should be released within the current financial year in view of Orissa’s past fiscal performance and in terms of the targets in the revised estimates of 2009-10.