Odisha CM reiterates commitment to women, youth in I-Day speech

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Bhubaneswar, Aug 15:

In keeping with his election time focus on the segment, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today reiterated his government’s commitment to the all-round development of women and girls in the state.

In his first Independence Day address after becoming the Chief Minister for the fourth consecutive time at the PMG Square on Mahatma Gandhi Marg here, Patnaik said a state policy for girls and women is going to be implemented in Odisha soon in a bid to ensure security and opportunities to grow for women.

“Mission Shakti initiated by the government for women has become a revolution in the state. We are committed to women’s empowerment,” said the chief minister after hoisting the tricolour at the Independence Day celebrations at Mahatma Gandhi Marg here this morning.

“We have prepared a youth policy and efforts are on to create more employment opportunity for the educated youths. The youth should get the benefits of the policy,” Naveen said.

He also said the government had laid special focus on the development of the SC/ST, backward and minorities and backward classes and had launched many schemes for the farmers, youths and others.

Claiming that the state had achieved much in agriculture, education and health sectors in the post independence era, Naveen said; “Development has brought a change not only in the urban areas, but also in rural pockets. The Government has aimed at creating model villages in rural Odisha.”

He informed that the government had taken a number of initiatives for agriculture, besides making a special budget to accelerate growth in the agriculture sector in the state.

Informing that Odisha had performed far better than the national growth rate, the chief minister also highlighted several programmes initiated by the government for the people of Odisha.

The Chief Minister said economic diversification is necessary for disaster prone Odisha, which often faces floods and cyclones causing extensive damage to its resources.

“Natural calamities like rain, flood and cyclone have been affecting Odisha all the time. Such calamities have destroyed properties worth thousands of crore of rupees. They have a debilitating impact on development. They also have a deep impact on the economy of the common people. That is why diversification of our economy is essential,” said Patnaik said

Stating that natural calamities have a great impact on the economy of people, the chief minister said that was the reason why the state government gave importance to develop agro industries, private industries, downstream and ancillaries industries.

The Mahatma Gandhi Marg here turned into a fortress with the deployment of 22 platoons of force for the Independence Day parade.