By Sandeep Pattnaik

\r\n

Bhubaneswar, 7th Oct 2016:  Utilization of State plan expenditure out of the total budget made during the current financial year (2016-17), has crossed Rs.19000 crore up to September, 2016, which is around 42% of budget estimate, thereby marking a growth of 26% more than that of the corresponding period during the FY 2015-16. The data was released during an all secretary level conference on Friday here.

\r\n

The plan budget utilization in agriculture & allied sectors has been around Rs.4837 cr up to Sept, 2016 which is around 44% of the budget estimate.  Similarly, the utilization in infrastructure sector has gone up to around 51% against the spending of 41% during last financial year. In real terms, the expenditure in this sector has touched Rs.5734 cr. The social sector spending followed the same pattern  with utilization crossing Rs.7568cr. against an expenditure of around Rs 6648cr during the same period of last fiscal. The Revenue collection from both the own tax and non-tax sources has also crossed Rs.12812 cr. The departments were advised to give their realistic requirement for supplementary budget by 25th October, 2016.

\r\n

Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi advised the departments to revisit the targets set by them and align their action plans accordingly. Development Commissioner R. Balakrishnan advised the revenue earning departments to take proactive measures for augmenting revenue collection to support the higher plan expenditure.

\r\n

During last 3 months around 940 new youths have joined as ASOs in the State secretariat. These personnel have come from various professional backgrounds like engineering, IT, MBA, personnel management, industrial relations, rural development etc.  Chief Secretary advised to utilize their talents in best possible manner through proper motivation and training.