Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday expressed displeasure over the tardy progress of construction of hostels for Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) students and directed government officials concerned to ensure completion of work for all ongoing hostels by the end of March.
“Till date we have sanctioned 2,850 hostels for providing boarding facilities to students out of which only 2,020 have been completed so far,” Patnaik said. “By March 31, 2016, all ongoing hostels must be completed,” he told the field officials of the ST & SC development, minorities & backward classes welfare department came at an review meeting chaired by him Wednesday at the secretariat.
Patnaik said the performance of project administrators of Integrated Tribal Development Agencies (PA ITDAs) and district welfare officers (DWOs) of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Rayagada, Sundargarh, Nuapada, and Nabarangpur districts needs improvement. “The secretary of the department must submit the status report in the first week of April to my office along with names of officers who have failed to achieve the target,” he said.
“I would expect that all the PA ITDAs, DWOs and special officers of micro projects and other officers of the department to ensure that the schemes and programmes are implemented promptly with passion and dedication,” said the Chief Minister.
Patnaik asked the department to give specific targets to each district under the Anwesha scheme launched by the state government December 21 to provide quality education to ST & SC students in the current academic session and monitor their implementation regularly.
The Chief Minister said the safety of student boarders in hostels, especially girls, is of utmost importance for the state government, He said the state government has sanctioned 3,000 posts of matrons and 336 posts of ANMs and directed department officials to fill up these posts within a definite time frame.
Patnaik pointed out that there is a need to dispose of all pending claims in a time-bound manner with regard to the Forest Rights Act (FRA). “Districts such as Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh, Rayagada, Nuapada and Koraput need to improve their performance as a large number of claims are pending for disposal in these districts,” he said.
He also said the state government is “committed to provide 100 per cent coverage of pension, housing and other social security schemes for the welfare of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) households.”
Patnaik emphasised on judicious use of the funds under the Special Central Assistance (SCA) to the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) and grants under the Article 275 (1) of the Constitution and state plan funds for filling up the gaps for the welfare of the tribal communities.
He also pointed out that scholarship must be provided and hostel and infrastructure at minority educational institutions should be created to help students of the community gain access to higher education. PNN