Bhubaneswar: The Industry sector along with other development is likely to get a boost from the Annual Budget 2025-26 to be presented on February 17 in the State Assembly.
This was indicated by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi after holding the Pre-Budget consultation meeting here today.
The Chief Minister discussed the Pre-Budget suggestions with experts, civil society and representatives of various sectors in the pre-budget discussion meeting held at Lok Seva Bhawan Convention Center today.
Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja, Development Commissioner Anu Garg, Principal Secretary, Finance, Saswat Mishra and senior officers of the Finance Department were present in the meeting.
In this meeting, former Finance Minister Praful Chandra Ghadai, Panchanan Kanungo, Shashibhushan Behera, Niranjan Pujari, former Finance Secretary Rabi Narayan Senapati, Upendra Nath Behera, Saffron leaders Sameer Mohanty, Sajjan Sharma and about 24 distinguished persons from various fields gave their well-considered opinions on the budget.
After the meeting, the Chief Minister told the Media that everyone gave their valuable opinions in the meeting on how this year’s budget can be people-oriented.
Like last year, our government has invited valuable feedback from the public through a press release to make the budget preparation process people-oriented, he said.
In this regard, arrangements have been made for the common people to give their opinions through e-mail, WhatsApp, web portal by January 31, Majhi said.
The Chief Minister said that in a people’s government, people’s opinions will be given importance and plans will be prepared according to the needs of the people. The budget is especially focusing on rural areas and economically backward people.
Along with this, emphasis is being given to industries like IT, semiconductor, petrochemical, steel, renewable energy, textile, agro industry and tourism, he said.
Along with increasing farmers’ income, emphasis is also being given to create enough cold storage facilities for the farmers, he pointed out.
The state cabinet in its last meeting approved a new scheme Viksit Gaon Viksit Odisha (Developed Village, Developed Odisha) with an aim to create a permanent income source for the rural people at the villages so that they no longer needed to move to urban areas for livelihood, he said.
In its 2024 election manifesto, the BJP had promised to recruit 1.5 lakh people in vacant government posts including 65,000 in two years and create employment for 3.5 lakh persons by 2029.
“We have already completed recruitment of 20,000 persons in government posts so far while more than 40,000 vacant posts to be filled up during the upcoming financial year. So, we are taking an important step in the employment sector in the budget,” the Chief Minister said.
The State government has already approved investment proposals worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore, which are expected to create employment for 1.10 lakh individuals, he added.
In July last year, the Mohan Majhi-led government had presented a Rs 2.65 lakh crore budget for the 2024-25 fiscal in the State Legislative Assembly. This time, the size of the Budget is very likely to increase by at least 10 percent, sources said.