Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday launched an innovative scheme, “Women SHGs for Drudgery Reduction”, to assist the women SHGs financially and make them self-reliant.
The scheme would give financial assistance to SHGs so as to enable them to reduce drudgery, Naveen said, while launching the scheme at Chhau field here. One lakh SHGs would benefit from the scheme.
He toured Mayurbhanj district and laid the foundation stone for various projects ahead of Baripada Municipality poll which is expected in February.
Addressing a public gathering, mostly of women, he said the State Government had launched Mission Shakti in 2001 for holistic empowerment of women by organising them into women SHGs.
“This scheme would definitely grow into a mass movement and economically empower women by enhancing their earning capacity,” he maintained.
As per the scheme, each SHG would get `10,000 as financial assistance through which they can buy different types of technical equipments and enhance their productivity.
He laid the foundation stone of a polytechnic institution at Tikarpada under Shyamakhunta block to be set up at a cost of `12.30 crore. The polytechnic would come up in an area of 10 acres.
“Skill development training and education in civil, electrical, mechanical and electronics and telecommunication sector would help generate employment opportunities and employability among youths,” he said.
Naveen also laid the foundation stone for a drinking water supply project at Chhau field. The project, costing `20 crore, is expected to be completed soon and will solve the drinking water problem in Baripada town.
Naveen said the Government would soon complete all pending developmental projects like construction of roads, supply of electricity, drinking water, health services and drainage in both town and rural areas.
He said the Government has also planned to launch various agricultural projects and strengthen small and medium scale industries to generate employment opportunities.
The Chief Minister distributed laptops to scholar students and cheques of `10,000 each to SHGs. Around 12,000 SHGs have been provided the financial assistance in the district.
Panchayati Raj Minister Kalpataru Das, Deputy Chief Whip Sanjay Das Burma, Minister for Handloom and Textile Sarojini Hembram, Deputy Speaker Sananda Marandi and MP Laxman Tudu also spoke.