There should be competition among dists for realization of goals: Odisha CM at collectors’ conference

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said there should be a competition among districts for realization of goals and setting benchmarks for others. The CM was addressing the collectors’ conference here.

“I would like to see all our development projects are implemented in shortest possible time and our welfare initiatives reach all the legitimate beneficiaries. Odisha has been at the forefront of many states for its transformative initiatives. Sports, healthcare, school transformation, women empowerment, skill development, crop production and Covid management are some of the sectors that attract special mention,” said Patnaik.

“The 5T initiative and ‘Mo Sarkar’ have brought about transformative governance and enhanced our people’s outreach programmes. At the district level, collectors and district administrations are required to reach out to more and more people, find out issues of concern, and use technology to sort out them in a faster and simple, hassle free manner,” the Chief Minister said.

“As you know, we are now a food surplus state contributing to national public distribution system. I would like to highlight that the agriculture and allied sectors provide maximum employment to people in rural areas. We should focus more on farm mechanization, crop diversification, horticulture and floriculture, dairy development and fisheries. Our ‘Millet Mission’ has now been taken up nationally to improve nutrition. This sector has the potential to revitalize rural economy. We need to continue to excel in this sector,” he said.

“Start-ups play a vital role in the economic development of the State. A lot in this regard has been done by the Government. The O-hub is in operation as one of the big incubation centres for the Startups. We are trying to make Odisha as one of the top three Start-up destinations in the Country.
Women empowerment is at the core of all our initiatives. We intend to transform our Mission Shakti groups in to Small and Medium Enterprises. We are providing interest free loan up to Rs 5 lakh so that they can convert their units to flourishing units,” said Patnaik.

“We have a target to provide Rs 50 thousand crore to our Mission Shakti Groups in next five years. Collectors are required to provide all possible support to Mission Shakti Groups in realization of this objective. Other Flagship programmes like Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, School Transformation, Tourism Promotion, Sports also require your special attention,” the CM advised the Collectors.

The mission sakti industrial park conceived and implemented by Koraput administration was highly appreciated by the CM. He said that this will be adopted by the entire state.