Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched program for the addition of the 55 new blocks in 14 new Districts Special Development Council(SDC) here on 14 May.
And it has widened the preview of SDCs to 23 districts, which itself speaks about our State’s leadership and the commitment towards tribal development, said a senior official of the Department of ST SC Development.
Minister ST SC Development Jagannath Sarka, Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena, Secretary to CM V K Pandian, Development Commissioner Anu Garg, Secretary SC ST Development Roopa Roshan Sahoo, SCSTRTI Director Indamani Tripathy and other senior officiers were present.
Promoting their culture, traditions and leading to development has been the journey so far for the SDCs and the announcement of the new SDCs strengthens the resolve of the State to work tirelessly towards transformation.
Protection & preservation work of 4599 Tribal Sacred Groves has been taken up in the 9 districts out of which 4496 have been completed.
Odisha is home to the most diverse population of the indigenous 62Tribal including 13 Primitive Tribal Group (PvTG).
The custom and traditions, totems, practices, social organization of the tribes constitute an inseparable part of tribal identity. Each has an Identity unique and varied from the other .SDC is a celebration of this uniqueness.
With formation of the SDCs in 2017, in 9 tribal dominated Districts, the Government of Odisha under the leadership of Naveen Pattnaik became the first and only State to have an intervention to preserve the unique culture and heritage of all 62 tribes and 13 PvTG.
The Special Development Councils take up activities to preserve the sacred groves, build culture clubs, conduct cultural events and exposure visits, identify the artisans and artists, the SDCs have been a means to assert the indigenous identity.
The Councils are Special in all ways possible, empowered to decide their own projects.
They translate the felt needs of inclusiveness in all spheres of development, starting from plan formulation, implementation to monitoring and execution.
SDC as democratic bodies, they decide their own fortune which is the only such structure in the entire globe
The SDCs have been a carrier of aspirations encompassing 9 districts, 117 blocks touching more than 64 lakh lives.
The thrust given is reflected through the fact that more than 60,000 projects have already been completed till now, in such a brief span.
As many as 1773 Tribal Culture Clubs have been identified out of which 1592 have been completed. 1889 clubs have been provided with Musical Instruments.1001 dance troupes have been provided with Dance Costumes.
828 Tribal weekly hats have been identified for improvement, out of which 794 have been completed.
About 10605 Tribal Delegates have undertaken Exposure Visits as a confidence-building measure.
Artisan Identity Cards have been issued to 36309 Tribal Artisans.
Tribal Bilingual Dictionaries in 21 languages and Tribal Trilingual Proficiency Modules in 21 languages have been printed and distributed in all 30 districts.
Around 3019 Tribal Youth Clubs have been identified for providing Sports Kit for the promotion of sports and Sports Kit distributed to 2249 Youth clubs.
49 Tribal Resource Centres have been constructed in Sundergarh.
A total expenditure of 281.54 Crores have been spent so far in more than 60,000 projects.
This year the Government plans to spend Rs. 223.5 Crores for the Special Development Councils.
