Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Assembly Thursday approved first special supplementary statement worth Rs 1,443.12 crore allowing the state government to recoup the advance taken from the Odisha Contingency Fund (OCF) to fund the KALIA scheme and a few other programmes.
According to the supplementary Budget statement, the Revenue & Disaster Management department utilised Rs 6.32 crore from the OCF to provide compensation to riot victims as per the Supreme Court’s directive.
Similarly, the state government has allowed reimbursement of Rs 1,244.66 crore taken from the OCF for implementation of KALIA scheme under the Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment department.
Besides, Rs 22.73 crore has been taken from the OCF for providing input and livelihood assistance to farmers for milk production, fishery and poultry (under Fisheries & Animal Resources Development department) and Rs 169.40 crore to disburse pension under various social security schemes (under Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disability department).
The advance funds taken by these two departments from the OCF have also been recouped.
The state government had enhanced the OCF from Rs 400 crore to Rs 1,600 crore in January 2019 through Ordinance route to meet the expenditure incurred on implementing KALIA scheme. The Ordinance expired after six weeks and the fund was reduced to Rs 400 crore.
As per rules, the government cannot use the Contingency Fund without recouping the advance taken earlier.
Therefore, the government has passed a special supplementary statement to reimburse the amount, said sources.
While the Revenue department’s demand was passed following a discussion, other three departments’ advances have been cleared through Guillotine.
