Orissa’s demands ignored: Ghadei

Expressbuzz, Nov 28, 2009

BHUBANESWAR: Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei today criticised the Centre for discriminating Orissa in releasing funds and ignoring it’s demands which has resulted in the loss of several hundred crores to the exchequer.Replying to the debate on the Orissa Appropriation (no 2) bill, 2009 in the Assembly, the Minister said that the Centre has announced increase of 10 per cent royalty on minerals after three years as against the demand of 20 per cent. But the royalty will be calculated on the price of minerals fixed by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) and not according to the actual market price, he said.The Minister said that after the Centre stopped funding the revised long term action plan (RLTAP) for the KBK (undivided Kalahandi, Balangir and Koraput) districts, the State Government launched the Biju KBK yojana, which is being funded from its own resources. Similar other schemes were announced by the State Government following the reluctance shown by the Centre in financing the development schemes, he said. In response to opposition allegations, the Minister said that the State Government has formulated the best rehabilitation and reconstruction (R&R) policy in the country. Criticising the opposition for becoming a stumbling block in the industrialisation of the State, Ghadei said that the state will be number one in development index if proposed projects by the Jindal, Posco and Tata is completed.He said that land for the projects will be acquired after negotiation with the local people.Acquisition of agricultural land will be avoided, he said, adding that the projects will create immense employment opportunities for the local people.The Minister said that the state finances have improved considerably in recent period because of deft handling of the situation.The debt burden has come down to Rs 36430.54 crore in 2008-09 for the first time in 61 years. Debt burden had gone down once earlier to Rs 73 lakh in 1946-47 from Rs 74 lakh in 1945-46, he said.Expenditure of plan outlay has also improved during the recent years, he said, adding that in 2008-09, Rs 7367.87 crore was spent as against an outlay of Rs 7500 crore. But in 1995-96, expenditure was Rs 1369 crore against an outlay of Rs 1650 crore, he said.