BHUBANESWAR : Rolling out a potential vote-catching sop ahead of the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly, the state government on Monday decided to provide one-time livelihood assistance of Rs 1,000 each to over 95.9 lakh families of the state and approved a new scheme ‘Swayam’ for self-employment of rural and urban youth.
The decisions were taken at a meeting of the state cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here. Along with the one-time financial assistance of Rs 1,000, the families covered under the public distribution system (PDS) will be provided with two jute carry bags of 20 kg and 10 kg capacity free of cost for their daily use.
The requirement of funds for the financial assistance will be Rs 959.05 crore while procurement and distribution of over 1.91 crore jute carry bags will cost Rs 278.69 crore. The total cost of the scheme - Rs 1,237.74 crore - will be borne out of the state budget, minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Ranendra Pratap Swain, minister for Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and chief secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena told mediapersons.
The ministers said after ensuring food and nutritional security of over 3.35 crore people of 95.9 lakh families, the state government felt that further support should be extended to the beneficiaries for their ease of living. The PDS beneficiaries faced hardship for purchasing essential commodities due to inflation. The decision to provide jute carry bags was taken as these families find it difficult to arrange bags to carry foodsgrains under the PDS, they added.
Besides, under the ‘Swayam’ scheme for the creation of self-employment opportunities, all urban and rural unemployed or under-employed youths of 18-35 years of age (18-40 years for special category) will be provided interest-free bank loans for project costs up to Rs 1 lakh to start a new business or expand existing business. There will be no collateral and processing fee for the loan.
The payment period will be four years which includes moratorium period varying from three to six months as prescribed by the bank or financial institution concerned. However, a defaulter in any bank or financial institution, employees of the state or central government, PSUs, statutory bodies and their families will be excluded from the scheme. Only one member of a family can be covered under the scheme.
The ministers said an applicant’s family should be covered under the KALIA or BSKY scheme or have an income of less than Rs 2 lakh per annum. Here, the family will be taken as self and spouse. Besides, the applicant must have UDYAM registered/assisted number. The state government has decided to cover one lakh eligible rural and 50,000 urban youths under the scheme. The expenditure will be Rs 448 crore for rural and Rs 224 crore for urban implementation of the scheme. The scheme will be operational for two years.