Govt to spend extra Rs 1209cr on sops

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Bhubaneswar: Even though the State is having a loan burden of over `90,000 crore on its head, the government Tuesday decided to bear additional Rs 1209 crore to meet expenditure for execution of various schemes.
The State Cabinet Tuesday decided to include another 4 lakh people under the ambit of the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme despite the fact that it forced to divert the Contingency Fund to meet the expenditure for implementation of the scheme this year. This will ensure an additional burden of `500 crore on the State exchequer.
Briefing media persons about the 16 proposals approved by the Cabinet, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi said, “The Cabinet has decided to expand the second component of KALIA scheme by including another 4 lakh landless agricultural households.”
Earlier, the government had announced to provide financial assistance of `12,500 to 1 lakh landless agricultural labourers. Now, it has been enhanced to 5 lakh, he said. It means, the State will bear additional burden of `500 crore to execute the decision.
Cleverly, the State government has revised the funding pattern and decided to distribute the money in three installments. This year, the government will provide `5,000 to each landless agricultural labourers while the remaining `7,500 will be given away in two tranches later.
Similarly, the State will bear additional `451 crore for providing sops to Asha workers under Swasthya Sahay. The original outlay of the Swasthya Sahay over a period of 5 years from 2017-18 to 2021-22 was `66.22 crore.
After announcing sops like payment of conditional monthly remuneration of `2000, `10,000 per Asha worker for procurement of bi-cycle, Almirah, umbrella, torch & chappal, `1,000 per month for six months as maternity benefits during five years period, the outlay has been increased to `517.41 crore, Padhi said.
Out of this total outlay of `517.41 crore, `240.92 crore will be met from District Mineral Foundation (DMF), Corpus Fund and National Health Mission (NHM) while remaining Rs276.49 crore will be given from State budget, the chief secretary said.
The Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also approved enhancing the budget outlay of additional Rs186.87 crore due to inclusion of various new interventions under scheme- Sishu Abong Matru Mrutyuhara Purna Nirakarana Abhiyan (SAMPurNA). The budget outlay has been hiked to `398.29 crore from `211.41 crore.
Besides, the allocation for Nidaan, Sahaya and free healthcare services has also been hiked by the Cabinet to `757. 50 crore with addition of `71.91 crore, he added.