Odisha Assembly Budget Session: Appropriation Bill To Be Tabled Today

Bhubaneswar: The Appropriation Bill will be presented in the Odisha Assembly today. A budget of Rs 2 lakh crore was presented for the financial year 2022-23 by State Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari on Wednesday.

“Accordingly, instead of presenting a full-fledged budget, a Vote-on-Account Budget has been presented to enable us to incur expenditure for the first four months of the financial year 2022-23 on the existing establishment, schemes and projects,” said State Finance Minister.

Reportedly, an allocation of Rs 20,344 crore has been made for agriculture and allied sectors, followed by an allocation of Rs 23,947 crore for the education and skills sector and Rs 12,241 crore for the health sector.

Adding to it, Rs 132 crore was provided for the promotion of Odia language, culture and heritage, which includes Rs 46 crore for the Mukhyamantri Kalakara Sahayata Yojana and Rs 15 crore for preservation, conservation, and protection of monuments and sites.

It is pertinent to mention that Rs 3,210 crore was also provided for disaster management, including Rs 2,246 crore under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and Rs 964 crore under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).

Notably, Odisha Assembly passed The Shri Jagannath Temple (Amendment) Bill, 2022, on Wednesday flagging way to give powers to the Puri temple administration and officials for hassle-free settlement of Lord Jagannath Temple land and related issues.

Hence, the temple administration has the power to sell or lease out Lord Jagannath Temple land, without any approval from the state government.

As per a report by Indian Express, around 60,426 acres of land in the name of Lord Jagannath, have been identified in 24 districts across the state. Over 395 acres of land have been identified in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Bihar as well. After the temple administration identified these lands, in 2003 it proposed that the occupants can buy the land or take it on lease from the temple rather than driving them away.