BHUBANESWAR : The BJP government in the state is all set to go for massive restructuring of Mission Shakti, the flagship programme of Naveen Patnaik government, by dissolving the grassroot-level leadership of the SHG network and launching a special drive to link every household with the income-generating initiatives.
Accusing the previous BJD government of using the SHG movement as a tool to gain votes, deputy chief minister Pravati Parida on Monday said the former diverted crores of rupees to unregistered groups. “Since the SHGs were unregistered, they did not come under the purview of a financial audit. All this is going to stop from now on. SHGs will solely work for women empowerment,” Parida said.
The deputy CM said the SHGs will function in a completely transparent manner. As a start, all office-bearers and leadership of such organisations will be changed.
The Mission Shakti department will also bring eligible women in rural areas, who had been left out of the SHG network, into the fold. The reorganisation process will start during the second phase of the social inclusion campaign under Odisha Livelihoods Mission (OLM) from Tuesday to April 22, she said.
Parida said, the Centre has been implementing the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) since 2012-13 for poverty alleviation and creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for rural households.
Will reorganise SHGs by month-end, new office-bearers will be appointed: Dy CM
In Odisha, the programme is being executed by OLM by facilitating their inclusion in community-based institutions such as SHGs, their cluster-level federations (CLFs), gram panchayat-level federations (GPLFs) and block level federations (BPLFs).
Although the Centre had asked the BJD government to link every household with SHGs, the latter did not do so depriving many families of benefits of the SHG system. Nearly 6.5 lakh eligible rural households across the state have remained outside the SHG fold.
“The past government used the entire SHG network as its vote bank and women who supported a particular party were deliberately left out. Our government has now started the campaign to bring in all the eligible women of every such household into the SHG network. This apart, the existing presidents and other office-bearers of CLFs, GPLFs and BLFs will be changed to ensure everyone gets a chance at leadership and there is transparency in operations of the SHGs,” she said.
The first phase of the campaign, which was carried out by OLM from March 8 to 31, linked 4,12,548 eligible rural households to the SHGs. “While the entire SHG network will be reorganised by the end of this month, new appointments to the GPLFs, CLFs, BLFs will be made through elections to these federations in May,” the deputy chief minister said.
She further informed that as per the new provisions, current presidents and secretaries of GPLFs, CLFs, BLFs who have served for two consecutive terms exceeding four years, will no longer be eligible for holding the posts.