Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today launched the Mission Shakti Scooter Scheme for the mobility of the members of women self-help groups (SHGs) in the State.
The scheme will facilitate full interest subvention on bank loans up to Rs 1 lakh to the eligible women to purchase a scooter of their choice.
While 100 women were handed over the keys to scooters, at least 15,000 women will receive scooters under the ‘Mission Shakti Scooter Yojana’.
Launching the scheme, the Chief Minister said under the scheme the Government will provide interest free loan upto Rs 1 lakh to Mission Shakti members to buy scooters. More than two lakh members of Women Self Help Groups will be benefitted.
The Government will pay Rs 528 crore towards the interest of the loan availed by the Women Self Help Group members, he said.
On the inaugural day of the scheme keys of scooters were handed over to 15,000 members of the Women self Help groups.
Naveen said the scooter scheme will facilitate the movement of women and will bring new opportunities in the professional front for the women. The women are performing a very good job and hoped that they would perform better from now onwards, he pointed out.
The CM said with 70 lakh women, the Mission Shakti will be further strengthened and the stride of women will give a new pace to the progress of the State. Odisha is the only State in the country to give Government work orders to women.
On this occasion, Shri Patnaik announced to provide vehicles facilities to block and district level Mission Shakti federation for their official work.
The Chief Minister said the aim of the Government is to make members of the SHG as entrepreneurs for which the government is transferring Rs 150 crore interest free financial assistance to their bank accounts directly for this purpose.
“The launch of the Mission Shakti Scooter Scheme is a milestone step. About 15,000 Mission Shakti mothers have taken scooters under the scheme”, said Mission Shakti Secretary Sujatha R Karthikeyan.
On the other hand, Opposition BJP alleged that the Government launched the scheme to woo women voters ahead of 2024 polls.
As the women voters are distanced from the Government, the scooter scheme was launched to attract them back towards the government, said BJP Chief Whip Mohan Majhi. The BJP lawmaker also alleged that it is a failure scheme of the government.
Former Union Minister and BJP MP Jual Oram said scooty will be distributed free of cost, if BJP comes to power in the state.
However, BJD leader Amar Prasad Satpathy said the scheme was launched to support the women SHG office bearers to help them in their daily works.