Chhatrapur: The district administration has planned to open two retail shopping malls and 22 Ganjam haats in the district to make women self-reliant, a report said. Sources from Ganjam district administration said the two retail shopping malls will come up at Berhampur and Khallikote alongside National Highway-16 while 22 Ganjam haats will be opened in each of the block headquarters in the district. Plans are also afoot for establishment of a central processing unit at Chamakhandi which will sell food and other products in collaboration with star hotels.
Moreover, efforts are on for tieup with all college hostels, skill development centres and hostels for SC and ST students. The shopping malls and Ganjam haats will be established as part of an initiative under state’s Mission Shakti programme and state-owned Odisha Rural Development and Marketing Society (ORMAS).
The malls and haats will showcase and provide marketing facilities for various food products and household articles prepared by the women selfhelp groups (SHGs). Reports said Mission Shakti and ORMAS have been preparing various plans to provide livelihood means to women and make them self-reliant. The members of the women SHGs are being provided with bank loans and various subsidies as part of this initiative.
The move to open Ganjam haats is an outcome of this development where the SHG women will have facilities to display and sell off their food products like pickles, baddi, papad and various household articles. Meanwhile, three Ganjam haat outlets have started functioning on DRDA premises of Chhatrapur, Lake View Park near Tampara Lake on Chhatrapur outskirts and in Berhampur. An app for Ganjam haats has also been developed to facilitate sale and purchase of products of SHG women.
The development of the app has been helping residents in Berhampur to buy their choicest products from these haats. The app will soon be available in all the 22 blocks, NACs and municipalities in coming days.