Bhubaneswar: Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram Thursday blamed the state government for not taking financial aid for programmes meant for tribal community, and for rolling out schemes of the Centre.
“We are giving the state assistance for many tribal specific programmes, but they fail to come on board. We proposed a scheme for giving market price for tribal produce on a fund sharing formula of 75:25, but they did not come on board,” he said.
He said two of his secretaries failed to convince the state about benefits for the state. He also castigated the state for not coming on board for establishing more cold storage plants.
Oram said, “The Centre gives 90 per cent subsidies for cold storage plants but the Odisha government is unwilling to take this scheme from the Centre.”
The tribal affairs minister, while hinting at the roll-out of the Biju Swastya Kalyan Yojana, said, the state is now mastering the art of converting schemes of the Centre into its own programmes.
Oram said his ministry has chipped in to ensure training for SC/ST entrepreneurs through Rourkela Steel Plant incubation centre and MoUs have also been signed for that.
The National ST Finance Corporation will fund the training and later soft loans would also been given to the trained personnel from the institute.