Odisha Utilises 46% Of Plan Budget By October

Bhubaneswar: The state plan expenditure during the financial year 2016-17 has touched Rs 20,872 crore by October which is around 46% of the total budget estimate.

State plan budget utilization marked a growth of 18.37% against the corresponding period during the financial year 2015-16, said a release on Thursday.

This was reviewed in the all secretaries meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at secretariat conference hall here on Thursday.

The utilization in agriculture and allied sectors has been around Rs 5393 crore, which is 49% of the budget estimate. The expenditure in this sector has increased by 5% over the expenditure of last fiscal during the same period.

Similarly, the infrastructure spending has also gone up to around 56% of the budget estimate marking a growth of around 2% over the last year. The utilization in this sector has been to the tune of Rs. 6043 crore, said the release.

Social sector spending has touched Rs 8373 crore marking an increase of around 4% over the last year.

The total revenue collection up to October has been around Rs. 15,153 crores.

Padhi advised the revenue earning departments to scale up revenue collection to meet higher expenditure in infrastructure and agriculture sectors.

The departments were also directed to put more public services online and develop mobile apps for the public services notified under Odisha Right to Public Services Act so that citizens can easily apply from their own mobiles.

The Chief Secretary also directed all departments to keep close watch over the field level implementation of the flagship programs.

He also advised the principal secretaries and secretaries of the concerned departments to finalize the facilitating and regulating policies that are under preparation within 17th November.

It may be pertinent here to mention that government has put several investments attracting policies on the table during the last couple of months. Some of these policies include pharmaceutical investment policy, health sector investment policy, solar policy, biotech policy etc.

The discussion regarding disposal of grievances received through e-abhijog figured in the meeting. It was seen that around 86% of such grievances have been disposed of up to 7th November this year.