Speech of chief Minister at Collectors Conference

A very warm welcome to all of you in this two-day conference. I hope this interaction will reset and re-invigorate our efforts to maximize visibility to our transformative initiatives.

I would like to see all our development projects are implemented in shortest possible time and our welfare initiatives reach all the legitimate beneficiaries. There should be a competition among districts for realization of goals, and set benchmarks for others.

Odisha has been at the forefront of many states for its transformative initiatives. Sports, healthcare, school transformation, women empowerment, skill development, crop production, Covid management are some of the sectors that attract special mention.

The 5T Initiative and ‘Mo Sarkar’, – these twin initiatives has brought about transformative governance and have enhanced our people’s outreach programmes. At the district level, collectors and district administrations are required to reach out to more and more people, find out issues of concern, and use technology to sort out them in a faster and simple, hassle free manner.

As you know, we are now a food surplus state contributing to national public distribution system. I would like to highlight that the agriculture and allied sectors provide maximum employment to people in rural areas.

We should focus more on farm mechanization, crop diversification, horticulture and floriculture, dairy development and fisheries. Our ‘Millet Mission’ has now been taken up nationally to improve nutrition. This sector has the potential to revitalize rural economy. We need to continue to excel in this sector.

Start-ups play a vital role in the economic development of the State. A lot in this regard has been done by the Government. The O-hub is in operation as one of the big incubation centres for the Startups. We are trying to make Odisha as one of the top three Start-up destinations in the Country.

Women empowerment is at the core of all our initiatives. We intend to transform our Mission Shakti groups in to Small and Medium Enterprises. We are providing interest free loan up to Rs 5 lakh so that they can convert their units to flourishing units.

We have a target to provide Rs 50 thousand crore to our Mission Shakti Groups in next five years. Collectors are required to provide all possible support to Mission Shaktri Groups in realization of this objective.

Other Flagship programmes like Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, School Transformation, Tourism Promotion, Sports also require your special attention. I wish the best for the two day conference and looking forward for good suggestions and initiatives. Let’s work together towards a new Odisha an empowered Odisha.