Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government will distribute smartphones to about 46,000 community resource persons (CRPs) working under the Mission Shakti Department, Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida said Monday.
Speaking to reporters, Parida said the government will also provide uniforms and identity cards to all the community support staff of Mission Shakti from April 1, coinciding with Utkal Divas.
Parida, who also holds charge of the Mission Shakti department, said the move addresses a long-pending demand of the community-support staff and aims to strengthen grassroots implementation of women-centric programmes across the state.
The CRPs will be given smartphones to ensure wider and effective use of the LokOS app, a digital platform supporting the Lakhpati Didi programme, she informed.
To take this goal forward, the state government is bringing about a positive change in the lives of women by refunding interest on bank loans to self-help groups, she stated.
Speaking at a programme here, Parida said the state government is working on livelihood and long-term economic models to make women empowered and self-reliant.
She added that through bank loans, women self-help group (SHG) members can take up their enterprises, and their income and business are increasing due to reduced interest burden on loans.
The state government has reduced the annual interest rate on bank loans up to Rs 10 lakh to zero per cent and is refunding the entire interest amount directly to the bank accounts of the women SHG members.
During the programme, the deputy chief minister provided Rs 197.66 crore to 2,80,586 self-help groups towards interest-free loans. So far, more than Rs 515 crore has been refunded as interest to the SHGs during the financial year 2025-26.