Bhubaneswar:Expressing his solidarity with the protesting supporting staff of Mission Shakti, senior BJD leader and MLA Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo today joined their protest here at Mahatma Gandhi Marg.
Thousands of Mission Shakti support staff across the State gathered here to stage a protest demanding salary, which was stopped by the government for last eight months.
Shri Singh Deo joined their protest and said the previous BJD government had started a revolution of women empowerment through the SHG movement in Odisha. However, the BJP government has stopped their remuneration and salaries for the last eight months, which is unfortunate, he said.
The BJD Lawmaker demanded the State government to consider their genuine demand and take the programme forward foe empower of rural women of the State.
Thousands of women engaged as Bank Mitras, Logistic Service Providers (LSP), Community Resource Persons(CRP)), Krushi Mitra, Prani Mitra, and Master Bookkeeper (MBK) have been on strike in front of the state Assembly since Monday demanding payment of their salary. They have not been paid a salary for the last eight months.
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has been raising the issue during the last three days. There was a heated exchange of words between the opposition and Treasury bench members during Zero Hour over non-payment of salary to thousands of Mission Shakti support staff yesterday while a detailed discussion was held in the House today.
During the debates, BJD MLAs said the BJP government which came to power promising to empower women was not sensitive to their plight and not considering paying salary to Mission Shakti Support Staff.
Earlier, Leader of the Opposition and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik accused the BJP government of conspiring to stop the salaries of agitating women.
Shri Patnaik said “I strongly condemn this. As you know more than 70 lakh women are in the Mission Shakti. We in the Biju Janata Dal have always supported Mission Shakti women. We will continue to support them,” he said.
On the other hand, the BJP leaders alleged that BJD has utilised women as their vote bank. The support staff did not get salary for eight months as the then BJD government did not renew their agreement which expired in April 2024, they said.