Bhubaneswar: The BJP government has decided to restructure all Mission Shakti organizations to connect every household of the State under its fold.
This was informed by Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida here today while alleging that the previous BJD government had used the Mission Shakti groups for its political gain.
Speaking to media persons, Parida said the Centre had asked to link each household with the women self-help groups (SHGs). However, the previous (BJD) government did not pay heed to it, depriving many families from the Mission Shakti programme, she said.
Therefore, the State government has now started a process to include the left-out households under the programme, said Parida.
“The previous government had also removed women members affiliated to a particular political party. So, now, all women irrespective of party line will get the opportunity to take part in the election for various functionaries in the Mission Shakti organization,” she said.
Fresh appointments will be made by replacing present presidents and secretaries in SHGs to create leadership at grassroots level, the Deputy CM said.
Stating that SHGs will be revamped this month, Parida said new appointments will be made at Gram Panchayat Level Federations (GPLF), Cluster Level Federations (CLF) and Block level Federations (BLF) as well as state level in the next month.
Those holding posts twice for more than four years will be changed as the previous government had used them for political purposes to get votes, Parida alleged.
Reacting to this move of the BJP government, senior BJD MLA Pramila Mallik said, “The BJP government now wants to use women for political purposes. The government wants to insult those who became Lakhpati Didi due to their hard work.”
The women have realised that they are being exploited by the BJP government, she said.
Similarly, Congress MLA Sofia Firdous said, “It is unfortunate that both BJD and BJP government have treated women as a vote bank only.”She appealed to the Odisha government to empower the existing SHG members and include new women under the programme.