Bhubaneswar: On the occasion of Nuakhai, a major agrarian festival, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi will launch the CM KISAN scheme at a mega event being organized at Sambalpur to celebrate Nuakhai on Sunday.
The official launching will take place at Gangadhar Meher University auditorium in which farmers not covered in Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi will get an assistance of Rs 4,000 in two phases.
In place of the previous BJD government’s KALIA, the BJP Government has announced the CM-KISAN scheme in line with the PM-KISAN Scheme in its first Budget. While the Centre is providing Rs 10,000 to each farmer in three phases in a year under its scheme, the State will provide Rs 4,000 in two instalments.
Principal Secretary Agriculture Arabinda Kumar Padhee is engaged in making provision of funds transfers in a hasslefree manner to the farmers, said official sources.
Apart from launching the major farmers’ scheme, the CM along with Deputy Chief Minister K V Singh Deo, Union Education Minister and Sambalpur MP Dharmendra Pradhan, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari, Rural Development, Minister Rabi Narayan Naik, Sambalpur MLA Jaynarayan Mishra and a host of BJP leaders from western Odisha are likely to attend the Nuakhai Bhetghat.
The BJP, which has a strong hold in the western region of the State, is leaving no stone unturned to please the voters from that part of Odisha. The State Government has already declared a two-day public holiday for the Nuakhai Festival.
While the festival will be celebrated on Sunday, the Government has also declared Monday as a public holiday as there was a strong demand from the senior political leaders across party lines from the western Odisha to extend the public holiday for Nuakhai.
All schools, colleges, government offices, banks and other financial & educational institutions will remain closed across the State on September 9 (Monday) on account of the Nuakhai festival.
Meanwhile, the entire Western Odisha is all set to celebrate the annual megal cultural festival with pomp and grandeur.
Markets in the Sambalpur, Rourkela, Sonepur, Bargarh, Bolangir and other western Odisha districts witnessed a huge crowd as people stepped out to shop for Odisha’s major agrarian festival Nuakhai beginning tomorrow.
The celebrations of Nuakhai include wearing of new clothes, worshipping the presiding deity and having a sumptuous lunch with the entire family, apart from the usual rituals.
Special preparations have been made in the temple of presiding deities including Goddess Samaleswari in Sambalpur, Patneswari in Balangir, Sureshwari in Sonepur, Sekharbasini in Sundargarh and Manikeswari in Kalahandi for tomorrow.
Members of most families were seen busy preparing the typical delicacies for the occasion such as Mug Bara, Mug Manda, Chaula Manda’, Kakara Pitha and Kheeri.