House Concerned Over Slash In Central Assistance To Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Assembly on Monday expressed concern over the drastic reduction of central assistance to the state.

Informing the House during the question hour, Finance minister Niranjan Pujari said that the Centre has provided less financial assistance to Odisha and other states by the recommendation of the 14th Finance Commission.

The Centre, in the last five years, had approved Rs 1.84 lakh crore financial assistance to Odisha. The state has so far received Rs 1.66 lakh crore, which is Rs 17,299 crore less than the approved amount.

The minister said that the Finance Commission had recommended the Centre to sanction the financial assistance to the states at a ratio of 90:10. However, the Centre has provided the assistance at the said ratio to the state for only one financial year while in the last four years, it has been sanctioning the assistance at a ratio of 75:25 as a result of which eight centrally sponsored schemes in the state had to be stopped.

Stating that the Odisha government has been receiving the Rs 1854 crore less annual central assistance, Pujari said the Centre has started providing the financial assistance at 60:40 ratio for implementation of most of the central schemes in the state.