Fund for rlys, Spl status in state’s budget wish list

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Bhubaneswar: The state government has big hopes from the last Union Budget of this government to be presented in the Parliament Friday.
Speaking to reporters here, Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera said, “We hope that the Centre will allocate sufficient fund in railway sector so that ongoing projects are completed and new projects are taken up.”
As the Centre is not providing Special Category status to Odisha, Behera expected that the sharing pattern of central sponsored schemes (CSS) will be changed to 90:10 (90-Centre, 10-State) like north eastern states.
Similarly, the finance minister also wished that the state’s long standing demand for share in Clean Energy Cess collected from coal will be fulfilled. “State should get the lion’s share from the Clean Energy Cess collected from coal bearing states including Odisha. While the states are bearing pollution due to coal, the fund is being distributed to all states,” the minister said. The state government is also expecting special allocations or provision for agricultural development and doubling of farmers’ income.
Behera also said that he would present the State Budget for the year 2019-20 soon after the Union Budget to ensure that provision for matching shares to execute Central schemes are made in the State Budget.
While BJP leader and Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram said, it would be a people-centric budget, the Congress said it has no expectation from this budget.