Bhubaneswar: The State Cabinet today approved creation of a Corpus Fund of Rs.200 crore for Odia Asmita which would be further increased in future.
The fund will be utilised for the establishment of Odisha Asmita Bhawan, Odia translation academy, a world-class palm leaf manuscript museum, development of the Paika rebellion memorial and e-library at the district level, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi while briefing media persons after the Cabinet meeting.
Setting up Odia chairs at national and international universities, financial assistance for training in Odissi music and dance and development of a cultural troupe management system will also be part of the initiatives, he said.
The Chief Minister said efforts would be made to accord the famous Bali Jatra in Cuttack an international status and financial assistance will be made for training in Odissi music and dance, under the ‘Kalakar Gouraba Nidhi Yojana’.
The Cabinet has also approved the proposal to raise the wages of unskilled workers from Rs 352 to Rs 450, semi-skilled workers from Rs 392 to Rs 500, skilled workers from Rs 442 to Rs 550 and highly skilled workers from Rs 502 to Rs 600.
Shri Majhi said the cabinet on Wednesday met for three hours and approved five proposals after detailed deliberations.
Shri Majhi said the cabinet also approved the recruitment of 18,788 junior teachers at the Primary and Upper Primary schools in the state and the School and Mass Education department has been directed to expedite the certificate verification and the recruitment process of the junior teachers.
He said about 5-6 lakh more eligible farmers, both medium and large besides those in urban areas, who were denied benefit under the PM Kisan Yojana due to certain criterias of Kalia scheme of the previous Government, will be now covered.
CM said the State Government decided to revive 2,065 non-functional lift irrigation projects and strengthen 10,152 old ones with an estimated cost of Rs 1084.38 crore over five years starting this fiscal. These irrigation facilities can cover more than 2.85 lakh hectares of land, he added
This was the second cabinet meeting of the newly elected BJP government in the state. Earlier, the first cabinet meeting was held immediately after the swearing in ceremony on June 12 last in which it approved four proposals.
They included opening of all the four gates of the Sri Jagannath temple, a corpus fund of Rs.500 crores for the development, beautification and conservation of Sri Jagannath temple, MSP for paddy at Rs.3100 per quintal and implementation of the Subhadra Yojana in the State.