Bhubaneswar: The State Cabinet on Friday approved Mission Shakti Scooter Yojana, which was announced during the presentation of Budget for the year 2023-24 in the Assembly.
Mission Shakti Minister Tukuni Sahoo, Minister Co-operation Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena briefed Media after the Cabinet Meeting.
Since mobility is empowerment, the initiative aims to provide crucial mobility support to Community Support Staff (CSS) and EC (Executive Committee) members of SHG federations by facilitating their access to scooters.
This visionary initiative aims to provide crucial mobility support to Community Support Staff (CSS) and EC (Executive Committee) members of SHG federations by facilitating their access to scooters, said Mission Shakti Minister Tukuni Sahu.
Under this scheme, eligible individuals will benefit from full interest subvention on bank loans up to Rs. 1 lakh to purchase a scooter of their choice, making the transition to sustainable mobility more affordable and accessible than ever before, she said.
Shrimati Sahu said federation ecosystem starting from panchayat to district level has been set in place to support Mission Shakti SHGs at the grassroots. The SHG federation leaders and community support staff provide crucial services and handholding towards training, financial inclusion, livelihood promotion, and market linkage.
In recognition of their contribution towards women’s empowerment, the state government has come up with this scheme for further empowering them in their roles, she said.
Around 75,000 community support staff (CSS)and nearly 1,25,000 federation leaders will be benefited under the new scheme. The state government has made budgetary provision of Rs. 528.55 crore for execution of the scheme over a period of next five years, the Minister informed.
The Cabinet led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has also decided to construct around 10,000 buildings across the state for the Vana Surakshya Samitis (VSS) in a phased manner within a period of 4 years i.e. from 2023-24 to 2026-27.
These buildings can be used by the VSS as a place of congregation and an inception point of all decision making processes with a wide spectrum of uses like convening meetings on management and protection of the assigned area, income generation activities, convergence meeting of villagers, etc. It will also represent as an institution of a VSS in a village, Sahu said.
The State Government has made a budgetary allocation of Rs.250 crore for this purpose in the financial year 2023-24. With this budgeted allocation, 2941 VSS buildings are targeted for completion during the current financial year, she added.