BHUBANESWAR: The education and skill development sector saw a 10 per cent rise in budgetary allocation at Rs 30,030 crore for 2023-24 as compared to the previous budget with the focus this time being on scholarship aid for students, institutional infrastructure development and skill training.
Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari proposed a new scheme - Mukhya Mantri Medhabi Chhatrabruti Yojana for meritorious students - under which 10,000 UG students will get a scholarship amount of Rs 10,000 per annum while 15,000 per year will be given to 5,000 PG students and 10,000 students pursuing technical and professional courses will be extended scholarship of Rs 20,000 every year.
He announced another new scheme - Nutana Unnata Abhilasha Odisha - under which one lakh youths would be trained in future technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence, augmented reality-virtual reality, data science, 3D printing etc.
The budget has allocated the Rs 22,528 crore for the School and Mass Education department. While Rs 805 crore has been proposed for Mo School Abhiyan, another Rs 1,000 crore will be spent on construction of 237 hostels for boys in Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas.
Similarly, Rs 811 crore outlay has been planned for Mukhyamantri Medhabi Chatra Protsahan Yojana under which scholarships will be provided to 23 lakh SC and ST students, 60 per cent of whom are girls. The budget also finalised additional amount of Rs 1,000 per child per annum for providing proper nutrition to nearly six lakh ST and SC boarders residing in over 5,500 hostels. The boarders will be provided eggs four days a week and chicken or fish once a week.
Higher education sector’s outlay has been Rs 3,173 crore with Rs 170 crore for Mo College Abhiyan, Rs 163 crore for infrastructure development of colleges and universities. The minister proposed an outlay of Rs 986 crore for skill development and technical education which is 22 pc higher than the previous year’s provision.