The State Government has extended Mamata, the maternity benefit scheme for pregnant and lactating women, to urban areas.
Announcing this on the occasion of the 66th Independence Day on Wednesday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said Odisha had carved a special niche in the development sector by implementing several social welfare programmes from the State fund.
Naveen said the Mamata scheme, which was confined to rural areas, will be implemented in urban areas too.
Under the scheme, pregnant women and lactating mothers above 19 years are provided financial assistance of Rs 5,000 in four instalments. Pregnant women in the third trimester who have been immunized and registered their names with the anganwadi centres would be provided Rs 1,500 in the first instalment.
They will receive the second instalment of Rs 1,500 after three months of delivery if they have registered their child’s name and taken adequate care for immunisation. Basing on the food, care and immunisation of the child after it attains six months, the Government will provide Rs 1,000 as the third instalment while the same amount would be given as the fourth instalment once the child is nine months.
The assistance is provided to women during their first and second pregnancy. The scheme was launched in September 2011.
Similarly, distribution of free cycles to all girl students of scheduled categories studying in Class X will now be extended to the children of BPL families, the Chief Minister said.
He further said the State Government had accorded top priority to agriculture and decided to sink one lakh borewells to irrigated over 10 lakh hectares in the next three years.
Reservation of 50 per cent seats for women in the panchayat bodies had brought a new revolution in the villages and the Government would implement the same in the urban local bodies in a bid to empower women for their active participation in the development process, he added.
The Chief Minister said Biju KBK programme, Biju Kandhamal, Biju Gajapati, Rs 2-a-kg rice, Mamata scheme and free cycle to girl students have brought a sea change in the social and educational fields.