BHUBANESWAR: Governor of Odisha Ganeshi Lal on Friday said the debt-GSDP ratio of the State has been brought down from 50.7 per cent in 2002-03 to 16.8 per cent in 2018-19 and Odisha is well on the way for accelerating the growth momentum.
Addressing the Assembly on the first day of the budget session, the Governor, in his hour-long speech, dwelt on the successes of the Naveen Patnaik Government, its public welfare schemes and the plan of the State for 2020-21.
The Governor said the State Government is committed to increase investment in priority sector within prudent fiscal norms and at the same time, it is capable of increasing capital investment to about 5 per cent of the GSDP.
Stating that the Government has achieved debt sustainability from a position of debt stress, Lal said the interest payment to revenue receipt ratio has been brought down from 40.2 per cent in 2001-02 to 5.8 per cent in 2018-19.
“Prudent level of debt stock has given us an opportunity to go for higher capital investment for accelerating the growth momentum,” he said.
Reiterating the Government’s commitment for the welfare of deprived sections of society, Governor said the Government proposes to sanction 100 hostels with an accommodation capacity of 10,000 OBC and SEBC students to access higher education in 14 major urban educational hubs.
“Under the Biju Yuva Shasaktikaran Yojana, 1.05 lakh laptops worth Rs 23,850 crore have been distributed among meritorious students,” he said.
Odisha debt-GSDP down
Stating that the Government has adopted a holistic and integrated approach for development of scheduled tribes, scheduled castes, backward classes and minorities with special focus on the social, economic, education, health and livelihoods sectors, the Governor said 1,721 residential schools and 6,919 hostels have been opened across the State providing quality education to about 4.5 lakh ST and SC students.
The Governor said the Government has laid special emphasis on the development of agriculture sector through various interventions supported by a very comprehensive and more inclusive agriculture policy.
“The income of farmers has more than doubled and Odisha is poised to multiply it through more proactive developmental interventions in line with the national agenda of doubling the farmers’ income,” he said. The Government has remained watchful of the development of the people of lowincome group and introduced the KALIA scheme for this purpose.
A target has been fixed to include 50 lakh small and 25 lakh landless farmers families under this scheme in the coming days, he said. The Government, he said, believes in people’s participation in administration and in this direction the programmes like 5Ts and Mo Sarkar are important enterprises.
“Every district has in place a ‘Mo Sarkar’ desk to take on the programme at a great pace,” he said. Lal described the State Government’s steps for development of infrastructure facilities around the Jagannath Temple in Puri and said similar measures are also being taken to transform the facilities near the Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar.
After the devastation by Cyclone Fani, the Government had approved 15 projects in 2019 with likely cost of Rs 2,308 crore for development of Puri into a world class heritage site, he said and added that another six projects worth around Rs 900 crore have also been planned to be taken up to add to the heritage glory of Puri city, he said.