Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Feb 2: In a bid to provide livelihood to urban poor, the state government has decided to implement the Orissa Urban Livelihood Mission (OULM) in the 77 urban local bodies (ULBs) not covered under the Central National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM).
Presently, the newly launched Central flagship scheme NULM is in operation in 33 civic bodies. However, the remaining 77 ULBs are left out and not covered under any employment and livelihood support scheme. Hence, the state government has decided to implement its own OULM in the left out civic bodies, said sources in the housing and urban development (H&UD) department.
“The OULM is a new programme of the state government. Recently its expenditure was approved by the finance committee as the scheme has set a target of providing skill training to 76,500 urban poor youths at a cost of Rs 96.72crore in the next five years,” said an official of the H&UD department.
Sources said in order to ensure smooth and proper implementation of the scheme, a data-base would be created in the state and ULB level to capture all important aspects of the scheme. Respective civic bodies will conduct a survey to identify the beneficiaries.
An inbuilt tracking and monitoring mechanism and a web-enabled reporting system will be adopted to ensure successful implementation of the livelihood support scheme, sources indicated. The government will evaluate and monitor the execution of the scheme at regular interval.
Besides, the state will study the best skill development practices adopted by other states and adopt them in Orissa, sources added.
It should be noted that one month ago the state government had decided to include street vendors in civic bodies under NULM scheme.