Bhubaneswar, February 20 (IANS). Opposition leader and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik criticized the annual state budget presented by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi in the Assembly on Friday and called the budget a ‘full menu in an empty kitchen’.
Speaking to mediapersons on the budget outside the house, the former CM said, “What can I say about this budget? It looks to me like a full menu in an empty kitchen.”
Meanwhile, senior Biju Janata Dal leader, Divya Shankar Mishra criticized the Odisha Budget 2026-27, alleging that it lacks a new policy direction, financial clarity and concrete measures to generate employment in Odisha.
Mishra said the budget speech lasted for about two hours but failed to launch any significant new initiative for the people of the state.
The BJD MLA further claimed that many of the schemes announced in the budget lacked clear financial allocation and execution roadmap.
He also alleged that there are no special or effective measures for women, social development or weaker sections.
Mishra alleged, “There is no financial provision in most of the planning and programs mentioned in the budget. This is the worst thing. There is no special benefit scheme for SCs and STs, who are weaker sections of the society. For the empowerment of women, they have done nothing except direct benefit schemes. To generate employment in the state, nothing new has come.”
The opposition Congress also criticized the annual state budget for 2026-27, raising concerns over the rising loan burden and non-fulfillment of funds provided in the previous budget.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) President Bhakta Charan Das said, “You cannot increase the size of the empty budget. A government which has spent only 57 per cent of its total expenditure in the first 10 months of the current financial year cannot boast of giving more than Rs 20,000 crore in the coming financial year. The budget is as big as an elephant, but the expenditure is as big as a mosquito.”
–IANS
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