CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI bhubaneswar l tuesday l february 23, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 14 l late CITY EDITION Economy is now showing signs of recovery. Time has come to revert to our growth trajectory and aspire for transformative New Odisha once again paperless budget Odisha is one of the first States in the country to use the NeVA platform for e-budget presentation. The paperless budget initiative will resulting in reducing printing of about 1.5 crore pages of paper and save about 2,000 large trees — Niranjan Pujari, FM Budget size of `1.7 lakh crore is 13 % more than last year mission statement Adopting a Comprehensive Fiscal Risk Management practice with technical assistance from International Monetary Fund, Odisha has come up with a ‘Fiscal Risk Statement’ as a public disclosure document. Odisha is the first state in the country to introduce such reform The Budget harps on aspiration for ‘New Odisha’ with an agenda to transform health, agriculture, education, livelihoods, infrastructure as well as industries to the next level with adequate safeguard for the vulnerable sections of the society focus on agriculture, health, education, infra & employment a fine balance INSIDE `148 crore to transform OUAT into centre of excellence `450 crore under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana `9,164 crore Health push I P3 1999 gangrape case Prime accused Biban Biswal held after 22 yrs E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar/Cuttack STITCHING up a stunning investigation into the 1999 gangrape case at Barang that rocked the country and caused a political upheaval in Odisha, almost costing former Chief Minister Janaki Ballabh Patnaik his job, State Police nabbed prime accused Bibekananda Biswal alias Biban 22 years after he disappeared into thin air. Biswal had been absconding since 1999 and even the CBI, entrusted the investigation into the incident by the Orissa High Court, had failed to trace him in all these years. He was suspected to have died or murdered. A threemember police team left Cuttack on February 19 and nabbed Biswal with assistance of Navi Mumbai Police and Pune Police. Twin City Police Commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi supervised the operation carried out by a team of select officers including Cuttack DCP Prateek Singh. As news of the sensational arrest grabbed headlines, the victim thanked CM Naveen Patnaik and the Police Commissioner for bringing the case to a close. The case was in cold storage for over a decade but they recently reopened the file after some leads on CONTINUED ON: P7 Biswal. ban local bodies for provisioning of basic services based on the recomm e n d at i o n s o f 1 5 t h F i n a n c e Commission. “The State economy is now showing signs of recovery Time has come . to revert to our growth trajectory and aspire for transformative New Odisha once again,” Pujari said in his budget speech. As was anticipated, Pujari has tried to make the best out of the limited resources as some of the flagship projects required his attention. While `500 crore was provided to convert SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack into an AIIMS plus institute, `542 crore has been allocated for development of Puri into World Heritage City under ABADHA scheme. Another `200 crore each has been allocated to Lingaraj Temple and SaCONTINUED ON: P7 malei schemes. Odisha to construct 5,000 km roads, 30 bridges I P3 education, skill get highest share I P2 Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari reading the budget from his tablet @ Bhubaneswar `1,800 crore for KALIA scheme their jobs. Besides, `3,000 crore has also been announced with a target for construction of five lakh pucca houses through a convergence of PMAY-GRAMIN and Biju Pucca Ghar scheme. With livelihood a major issue postCovid, Pujari proposed a corpus fund of `500 crore to facilitate timely payment of wages under MGNREGA pending receipt of central assistance for wage component. His budget also allocated `1,270 crore for Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission and `80 crore for Shyama Prasad Mukherjee RURBAN Mission. The `1 per kg rice scheme received `969 crore for providing rice to all beneficiaries during 2021-22. The Finance Minister also announced transfer of `6,950 crore to panchayati raj institutions and ur- `1.7 lakh cr E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Agriculture outlay CM Naveen Patnaik receives a pen drive containing Odisha Budget 2021-22 from FM Niranjan Pujari at his Assembly chamber on Monday. Finance Secretary AKK Meena also present | Express 2021-22 Agri budget: Reduced outlay, thrust on irrigation E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari on Monday presented a `1.7 lakh crore budget which tried to maintain the fine balance between State government’s ‘New Odisha-Empowered Odisha’ goal and putting the pandemic-hit economy back on track. The State Budget 2021-22 with a size of around 13 per cent (pc) bigger than the previous year’s `1.5 lakh projects high aspiration towards a turn-around to the pre-Covid period with expectation that the State’s own revenue will grow by 10 pc during the year. Focus has been on key sectors like agriculture, health, infrastructure, urban development, employment and livelihood as well as education while keeping the thrust on highprofile projects that the government would seek to ride on when the local elections draw near. Expectedly, the health sector received a 19 percent jump with an allocation of ` 9,164 crore while a massive ` 12,000 crore for piped drinking water supply projects has been planned in sync with the Union Budget. The highest allocation of `24,370 crore, however, went to education and skill development. Similarly, agriculture and water resources sectors also received much attention with the government allocating over ` 25,000 crore for these two. The Finance Minister announced launch of a new scheme, Urban Wage Employment Initiative-MUKTA to provide wage opportunities to urban poor including the urban poor and migrant labourers who have lost Odisha budget Fiscal reform 2.74 lakh hectare to be irrigated in 2021-22 `795 crore for 23 Instream Storage Structures `860 crore under Parvati Giri Mega Lift Irrigation Scheme Despite professing commitment to farmers’ empowerment and agriculture development in the State, the Agriculture budget outlay has been reduced by `1,940 crore this year. Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari presented a budget of `17,468 crore for 2021-22 against the previous year’s allocation of `19,408 for the sector. The Minister, however, laid emphasis on increasing irrigation facilities and announced several measures on the front. Announcing that the State government intends to create additional irrigation potential of 2.74 lakh hectare during 2021-22, Pujari announced that government has planned to complete all ongoing major, medium and minor irrigation projects in the next two to three years. He announced that two new irrigation projects, Sandul in Kalahandi district and Turi-Guntat in Nabarangpur district will be taken up this year. He said `2,258 crore has been proposed for the completion of AIBP projects implemented through Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY). Besides, `454 crore has also been proposed under the State-funded Water Sector Infrastructure Development Programme (WSIDP) for these projects. He also announced `710 crore for flood control and drainage work during the year. Besides, convergence is also being made through Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation and District Mineral Fund (DMF) to create irrigation potential and livelihood improvement by taking up watershed development activities, water harvesting structures, mega lift irrigation projects for which `447 crore has been allocated. The Finance Minister was hopeful that the total investment for agriculture and allied sectors from budgetary and off-budget sources will be about `20,000 crore for 2021-22. Around `1,800 crore has been proposed for the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) CONTINUED ON: P7 scheme. Total Budget Outlay Pro-people, pro-growth, says Naveen E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday described the 2021-22 budget as pro-people, pro-growth and transformative budget in the State’s journey towards “New Odisha -Empowered Odisha”. Stating that most of last year was lost in Covid lockdowns, the Chief Minister said from that scenario to present a holistic, fiscally prudent budget for `1.76 lakh crore is nothing short of brilliant. He congratulated everyone involved in budget making. The Chief Minister had said while replying to the discussion on thanks motion to the Governor’s address that the State revenues have increased by 7.3 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year. He said that Odisha is in a much better position compared to many states in the country in the face of the pandemic.