Bhubaneswar, July 10 (IANS) Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, on Thursday, highlighted the state’s progress in women’s empowerment, healthcare, education, and electrification, while also seeking the Central government’s assistance to expand banking services in remote and rural regions during the Eastern Zonal Council meeting in Jharkhand’s state capital of Ranchi.

During his speech, Chief Minister Majhi outlined the allocation of Rs 15,222.85 crore in the financial year 2025-26 for implementation and administrative strengthening of various schemes launched by the state government for empowerment of women and children.

The key initiatives taken by the Odisha government for the Women and Child Development sector includes ‘Odisha Pusti Mission’ to enhance nutrition among children, pregnant women, and adolescent girls; ‘Mukhyamantri Kanya Bibah Yojana’ for supporting mass marriages for underprivileged families; and the ‘Subhadra Sambedana Yojana’ to strengthening women’s safety infrastructure, including help desks at railway stations and ‘Ame Padhiba Ama Bhasa Re’ to provide education in 17 tribal languages to preserve heritage and improve primary education outcomes.

The Chief Minister also added that Odisha has succeeded in providing financial assistance to more than one crore women under its flagship SUBHADRA scheme.

The state government launched a mobile app (SHAKTI) to ensure women’s safety.

Chief Minister Majhi called Odisha as national leader in Aadhaar-based beneficiary verification and community outreach under POSHAN Abhiyaan.

The Chief Minister highlighted the integration of Central government’s Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana and the state government’s Gopabandhu Jana Arogya Yojana and the implementation of Ayushman Vay Vandana schemes now cover more than 3.6 crore people, offering Rs 5 lakh cashless care, plus an extra Rs 5 lakh for women and senior citizens.

He said that Odisha has taken several transformative steps to make education more inclusive, equitable, and aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

“These initiatives are aligned with our vision of ‘Vikasit Odisha’. By improving the children-teacher ratio, introducing digital tools, enriching the curriculum, and engaging local communities, we are building a strong educational foundation for every child in the state,” CM Majhi added.

He also emphasised that Odisha has set up 23 POCSO courts and 21 fast track special courts to ensure speedy investigation of cases of sexual offences against women and children.

In 2024, 3,511 sexual offence cases were registered, with 2,393 charge sheets filed within two months.

He highlighted the progress made by the state government in urban planning, implementation of emergency response support system (ERSS-112), promotion of “Shree Anna”, millets.

Highlighting the achievements in the power sector, CM Majhi said that Odisha has emerged as a power surplus state in the eastern region of India, ready to supply surplus electricity to neighbouring eastern states through mutually agreed arrangements.

In renewable energy, Odisha is the first state in eastern India to formulate an energy transition action plan, he added.

“Odisha has also proposed the establishment of a regional research and testing laboratory of the Central Power Research Institute (CPRI) at Bhubaneswar to serve the eastern zone’s technical needs,” CM Majhi said.

The Chief Minister during his speech voiced concerns over the low penetration of banking services in the rural areas of the state.

“In this context, we request the Union government to kindly advise all banks at their apex level to open brick and mortar branches in unbanked gram panchayats in Odisha. Necessary steps may also be taken for redressal of the internet connectivity issues at the gram panchayat level for encouraging banks to open brick and mortar branches. A fixed component of commission along with variable commission to business correspondents may be increased by commercial banks to check their attrition rate,” CM Majhi said.

=–IANS

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