Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said an aid package of Rs 22,267.66 crore has been allocated as central assistance to Odisha to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

"A support of over Rs 22,267 crore to Odisha touching every cross-section of society has helped the people to deal with the disruptions arising out of the pandemic," said Pradhan.

The Minister said the central government has allocated Rs 19,042.44 crore assistance, 7,51,930 tonnes of rice, 44,130 tonnes of pulses, and 68.79 lakh LPG cylinders for Odisha as a Covid-19 stimulus and support package.

Pradhan said that 5 kg of rice per person per month have been given to 3.17 crore beneficiaries in Odisha under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana.

A total of Rs 1,258.02 crore was transferred to 85.20 lakh women Jan Dhan account holders in Odisha. Besides, Rs 400.63 crore has been transferred to 20.3 lakh PM Kisan (Krushak Samman Niddhi) beneficiaries in the state, he added.

About 20.83 lakh construction workers in Odisha have received Rs 312.49 crore under the Building and Construction Workers Welfare Fund in the state.

Some 4.51 lakh job cards were issued from April 2020 to September 2020, generating 9.25 crore mandays of employment. Besides, 74.42 lakh mandays were generated in Odisha under the PM Kalyan Garib Rozgar Yojana, informed the Minister.

Apart from this, Rs 5,122 crore has been released as the entire GST compensation to Odisha for the financial year 2019-20 and Rs 2,258 crore allocated to Odisha as GST compensation in the financial year 2020-21, out of which Rs 1,129 crore has been released.

He said Odisha has been permitted to borrow an additional Rs 2,858 crore amounting to 0.50
per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for meeting the shortfall arising out of GST implementation..