Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Tuesday inaugurated 71 hostels including three Akanksha hostels at various places through videoconferencing.
The Akanksha hostels have been opened at Berhampur, Sambalpur and Rourkela. Another 68 hostels established with an expenditure of Rs 150 crore were also inaugurated Tuesday.
Mo Chhatrabas cards would be distributed to 5.7 lakh SC/ST students staying in 6,700 hostels in order to bring in transparency and accountability in hostel management.
Patnaik also launched disbursement of post-matric scholarship to 50,000 ST/SC students through Odisha State Scholarship portal. A total of Rs 101 crore has been directly transferred to the bank accounts of the students.
Samhati—an initiative for up-scaling multi-lingual education to address language issues of 1.5 lakh tribal students in early grades – has been launched across 1,450 schools run by the SC/ST Development department.
Another new initiative Prayas has been launched to provide skill development training and placement linkage to 7,560 SC, ST, OBC and minorities youths through Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA).
Stating that education is the basis of reformation, Naveen said that literacy is crucial for the development of SCs and STs in Odisha. “The state government has always given importance to education for which our SC/ST brothers and sisters have been able to excel in different fields,” he said.
Secretary to CM (5T) VK Pandian moderated the programme while SC/ST Development Secretary Ranjana Chopra gave the inaugural speech. Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra, Development Commissioner PK Jena and senior officials attended the event.
PNN