Former Odisha CM says state received little, expresses disappointment over Union Budget

Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik has expressed disappointment on the Budget-2026 presented today by the Union Government saying that “the state has received little as far as infrastructure, job creation and due additional allocation is concerned.”

The anticipation from the people of Odisha was that the double engine government would offer a growth momentum with focus on infrastructure, job creation and additional allocation which is due to the state. The state has received very little. The budget has offered no noteworthy benefits to Odisha and its people; Patnaik reacted in a post in ‘X’ handle.

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While welcoming the proposal to establish the Rare Earth Corridor in Odisha, he said Odisha is the leading producer of several key minerals and will always contribute to nation building through its rich resources.

Commenting on the growth in national waterway connectivity, he said the proposal for National Waterways to connect mineral rich areas and industrial centres to the Ports is a decade old proposal without any progress on the ground.

It is a huge disappointment for the people of Odisha that the announcement to develop seven High-Speed Rail corridors between cities as ‘growth connectors’ does not feature Odisha., he stated.

Odisha BJP nipped the Bhubaneswar Metro project earlier and the neglect of people’s needs continues as usual.

And it’s quite baffling that the Tourism Centric Scheme for Development of Buddhist Circuits has completely skipped Odisha despite having several very important Buddhist sites including our Diamond Triangle.

As seen from the entirety of the Union Budget, Odisha is getting allocations only for taking its natural resources away and completely ignored when it comes to resource allocation for benefit of people of the State.

It’s time the State BJP Govt takes responsibility for people of Odisha and ensures they get their rightful dues from centre. Odisha and its people deserve more and better from the Union Budget, he concluded.