JAJPUR : CHAIRMAN 5T and Nabin Odisha VK Pandian on Tuesday dared former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to visit Jajpur to witness development before waxing eloquent about BJP’s chances of forming the next government in the state.
Addressing a huge gathering at Kali Padia in the district headquarters town, Pandian said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik does not crave for government formation or power. “His only objective is to serve the people. He has already served the state for 24 years and would get the blessings of the people again,” he said.
Without naming Chouhan, Pandian said the former MP chief minister would do well to visit Jajpur to gauge the mood of the people of Odisha.
The 5T chief said Jajpur district has a special place in his heart. In the last six months, the state government has sanctioned Rs 610 crore for development of Jajpur, he said.
Earlier, addressing a Nua-O Fest at NC College, he said Odisha government will provide ‘Nua-O’ scholarships to students of Plus-III and post graduate in the state soon. Minimum scholarship for boys will be Rs 9,000 whereas girl students will be entitled to Rs 10,000 per year. Students belonging to eligible SC/ST and Nirman Shramik families will get Rs 10,000 and Rs 11,000 for boys and girls respectively, he said.
“The Nua-O scholarships for the current academic year will be deposited in the bank accounts of the eligible students from February 20 and completed this month itself,” he said adding Odisha is the first state in the country to launch such a scholarship scheme covering around 95 per cent of the students.
Pandian said that a Nua-O corpus fund of Rs 300 crore will be constituted from the coming academic year. By August end, Nua-O Magic Smart Card will be given to all eligible students to enable use for bus and train travel, free wifi, access online courses, skill development, coaching programmes based on performance and participation in various academic and extracurricular activities,” he said. Pandian said this will be a new era of student empowerment by the CM towards realising his vision of Nabin Odisha.