Odisha first state to have ‘climate, nutrition budgets’

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government in its maiden budget of the new term in the state has come out with two new separate budget documents especially crafted on the issue of climate and nutrition. The government claimed that the state became the first Indian state to do so.

Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari in his Budget address Tuesday said, “We propose to introduce a document on ‘Climate Budget’ to provide a brief account of tracking climate public expenditure. Odisha is the first State in the country to bring out such disclosure,”

The minister also patted his own back for coming out with a budget document on nutritional status.

“Nutrition for children has remained a challenge across the globe. We are introducing a separate ‘Nutrition Budget Statement’ with support from UNICEF. This will cover information and analysis on all nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive schemes across the Departments. Again Odisha is the first state in the country to introduce such a document,” the minister said.

The state used to bring out budget documents on agriculture, gender and children earlier. With the new addition, the budget documents of the Assembly have become wider and more detailed for the policymakers and researchers to study on. The policymakers and experts on the issue hailed the move.

Chief of field office, UNICEF Odisha, Monika Nielsen said, “Through the path-breaking announcement of a Nutrition Budget, Odisha has taken a leadership position in the entire country. We are very encouraged by the commitment shown by the Odisha government towards improving nutrition. The real work begins henceforth when the government makes adequate budgetary allocations in schemes for improving nutrition outcomes for women and children in the state as well as the more vulnerable.”