Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today announced to double the financial assistance provided under Mamata scheme.
The financial assistance being provided to the beneficiaries under the maternity scheme has been increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.
The money will be transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries in two instalments. The first instalment of Rs 6,000 will be paid 6 months after pregnancy and the second payment of Rs 4,000 will be made after the child completes 10 months.
All eligible beneficiaries will get this enhanced amount from August 2023. The outstanding amount will be provided to the beneficiaries between the 20th and 25th of this month.
All women above 19 years are eligible to get the enhanced assistance for two children. The women of 13 particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) can avail the benefit for each pregnancy.
The State had launched the ‘Mamata Yojana’ in 2011 to reduce maternal & child mortality and malnutrition. The Mamata Yojana is very popular and has been adopted as a model at the national level.
Around 60 lakh pregnant women have already benefited from the scheme in the State so far. The Government has already paid Rs 2,900 crore to them.
Earlier in the day, 5T and Nabin Odisha Chairman V K Pandian had announced the introduction of the Nua-O scholarship for undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Under the initiative, male students will get Rs 9,000 annually, while female students will receive Rs 10,000. Male students belonging to SC/ST and Nirman Shramik (construction worker) families will get Rs 10,000, while female students of the categories will receive Rs 11,000 annually, Shri Pandian announced this while speaking to students at the ‘Nu-O festival’ at Jajpur this morning.
The Nutana Unnata Abhilasha (NUA) Odisha scheme aims to empower youth with continuous skilling, re-skilling, and up-skilling opportunities, he said.
With a budget of Rs 385 crore for 2023-24 to 2025-26 fiscals, the scheme will cover all 30 districts, prioritising tribal and remote areas.
The bureaucrat turned politician said that the scholarship will be available for students of undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in State universities and Government and non-Government aided colleges including Sanskrit colleges under the Higher Education department.
Students whose parents are Income Tax payers or are permanent government employees would not be able to avail of the scholarship, he said.
The Nua-O scholarship for the current academic year will be deposited in the bank accounts of the eligible students from February 20 onwards.
A corpus of Rs 300 crore will be created and by August, Nua-O magic smart cards will be given to all eligible students, through which they would be able to avail additional benefits such as bus or train travel, access free WiFi, online courses, skill development and coaching programmes, Pandian said.
Around 4.5 lakh undergraduate and 32,000 post-graduate students are expected to benefit from the Nua-O scholarship, he added.