BHUBANESWAR: The Assembly on Thursday passed the second Appropriation Bill, 2011, authorising the State Government to meet the supplementary expenditure of over Rs 4,724.62 crore out of the consolidated fund of Odisha amidst Opposition walkout.Dismissing Opposition allegation that the Government had failed on all fronts, Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadei said the State continues to maintain a higher economic growth despite the Centre’s negligence. ‘The economic growth rate of the State is 9 per cent which is higher than the national growth rate, he said.He asserted that the State has been able to reduce the poverty level from 47.15 to 28.17 per cent.Asserting that the Centre is not doing any favour to the State, Ghadei said whatever the Central assistance the State got is as per the provision of the Constitution.Initiating a debate on the Bill, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh said the State Government had miserably failed in providing basic services to the people, especially in the Maoist-affected tribal districts.While health services in the undivided KBK districts are non-existent, the Government has utterly failed to universalise the primary and secondary education. Similar is the situation on the irrigation front. The Government has not been able to take up a single major irrigation project till now.When the State is facing CBI probe for massive irregularities in the implementation of rural job scheme, the power situation has gone from bad to worse. The rural electrification programme is in a limbo due to acute shortage of power.Alleging that the Centre is suffering from ‘policy paralysis’, Government deputy chief whip Arun Sahu said the devaluation of money in comparison to the US dollar is because of the failure of the Centre in taking major policy decisions. This has led to inflation in the country.
Comments
0 comment