Bhubaneswar: In a bid to save thousands of trees, Odisha Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari presented paperless – ‘Supplementary Green Budget’– in the state Assembly Friday during the ongoing 2020 Winter Session of Odisha Legislative Assembly.
According to minister Pujari, the total budget layout stands at Rs 11,200 crore. While Rs 2,273 crore has been allocated as administrative expenditure, Rs 7,438 crore is meant for programme expenditure, Rs 1,484 crore for disaster response fund and Rs 5 crore towards transfers from the state, Pujari said in the Assembly, describing it as a revenue surplus budget.
For ‘Green Budget’ presentation, all MLAs were handed over iPads with pen drives containing budget documents after which the state finance minister read out his budget speech from an iPad in the Odisha Assembly.
Notably, the 40-day long Winter Session of the Odisha Legislative Assembly began Friday.
Minutes after the start, the House was adjourned for the first half of the day as a mark of respect to former Speaker Sarat Kumar Kar, ex-government Chief Whip Gurupada Nanda, ex- member Kartikeswar Patra and COVID-19 warriors. The session began at 11.00am.
PNN