Bhubaneswar, July 23: The total debt burden of the state stood over Rs 43,540 crore. It would likely to touch Rs 50,000 crore in the coming days.

Raising concern over the state’s rising loan burden, the Opposition — Congress and BJP — today alleged that the state’s economy was in a very bad shape because of the Naveen Patnaik government’s faulty finance policy.

Congress chief whip in the Assembly Tara Prasad Bahinipati said: “Now, every child in the state carries a loan burden of more than Rs 8,687. The state will sink under a loan burden in the coming days. Whatever welfare programme is going on is because of Central assistance.”

Dismissing the government’s claim that it has surplus revenue, Bahinipati said about 1.51 lakh posts were lying vacant in the state while more than 40,000 posts had already been abolished.

“The government is no more required to spend money towards salary payment for around 2 lakh posts. Development activities are getting affected because of the large-scale vacancies.”

BJP MLA Rabi Nayak alleged that the state government distributed sops to people, incurring heavy loan.

Finance minister Pradip Kumar Amat, however, said: “ There is nothing wrong in availing loans. The state requires more loan to invest in development projects.”

“The state is managing loan position following the guidelines of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act,” he said.

Stating that Odisha’s loan burden is low compared to many other states, Amat said: “Andhra Pradesh’s loan burden stands at Rs 1.78 lakh crore, while Bengal’s loan burden is pegged at Rs 2.32 lakh crore.”