Odisha government will implement the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) in 40 blocks of ten left-wing-extremist-affected districts of the state during this fiscal.
The decision was taken at the first general body meeting of the Odisha Livelihoods Mission (OLM), presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneshwar on Monday.
Mr. Patnaik said above 50 lakh poor households had already been organised into women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) through the ‘Mission Shakti’ movement. The government would implement NRLM in a phased manner based on the success of ‘Mission Shakti’, he said.
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All the 30 districts of the state would be covered under the scheme in the next five years. In order to make poor people credit-worthy and valued customers of banks, SHGs would be given priority bank-linkages under OLM. The OLM has targeted providing credit linkage to one lakh women SHGs with a credit requirement of Rs. 1,000 crore, he said.
The Chief Minister said institution building was a priority area, where all poor and vulnerable households would be organised into SHGs, SHG Federations and Producers’ Collectives.
Capacity-building initiatives would be taken to make these institutions economically viable and self-reliant, he said, adding that focus will be on marginalised communities like scheduled tribes, scheduled castes, persons with disabilities and other such groups.
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Mr. Patnaik said that community-based institutions would be provided with financial assistance of upto Rs. 15,000 as revolving funds. Loans of larger size would be made available to them through their gram panchayat level federations, he said.
Panchayat federations would be provided with community investment funds — a grant ranging from Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 25 lakh based on their population.