Bhubaneswar: The state government has allocated funds to provide broadband connectivity to hospitals and schools in mineral bearing districts of Odisha.
The state government Wednesday approved eight projects for development of mineral-rich districts for which Rs 257 crore would be spent from Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC).
The projects were approved at the OMBADC Board of Directors meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy Wednesday. The projects will be implemented in nine mineral bearing districts – Angul, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Koraput, Mayurbhanj, Rayagada and Sundargarh.
The government has sanctioned Rs 47.25 crore for up-gradation of health service facilities in health sub-centres, primary health centres, community health centres and sub-divisional hospitals in two blocks of Mayurbhanj district.
While Rs 34 crore was sanctioned for up-gradation of library, laboratory and teaching-learning infrastructure of Keonjhar engineering college, Rs 123.45 crore has been allocated for opening of centres of excellence in government ITIs and polytechnics.
Similarly, the government will spend Rs 3 crore to provide broadband connectivity to hospitals and schools in the districts while Rs 20.48 crore was released for improvement of milk procurement facilities in Jajpur district.
Development of four mega mother nurseries in Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Jajpur districts was planned at a cost of Rs 11.71 crore. Similarly, skill development certificate course for tribal youths at Rs 0.16 crore and sex sorted semen for genetic improvement of cattle would be taken up at Rs 16.93 crore.
The Chief Secretary directed the department secretaries concerned to work out ‘weekly monitoring plan’ for expeditious and quality implementation of the projects for completing them before the scheduled time.
According to sources, projects worth Rs 13,233 crore were sanctioned earlier from the OMBADC fund in the sectors like mega piped water supply, up-gradation of heath service facilities, quality improvement in education, skill development, livelihood promotion through agriculture & allied activities, etc. All these projects are now under various phase of implementation.