Rs 200 Cr Corpus Fund For Odia Asmita, Minimum Wages Hike Among 5 Proposals Approved By Odisha Cabinet

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Cabinet on Wednesday approved 5 proposals, including Rs 200 crore corpus fund for Odia Asmita Bhawan, Odia Translation Akademi and a hike in minimum wages for various categories of workers.

Briefing the media, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, who chaired the meeting at Lok Seva Bhawan, said that a corpus fund of Rs 200 crore has been created for revival of Odia Asmita and promotion and preservation of culture, art and heritage. “Odia Asmita Bhawan, palm leaf manuscript museum, Odia Translation Akademi, development of Paika Rebellion Memorial, e-library and Odia chair at national and international universities will be set up. Similarly, efforts will be made for national status for Bali Jatra, ‘Kalakar Gouraba Nidhi Yojana’ and financial assistance for training in Odissi music and dance. The funds will also be utilised for ‘Kalakar Gouraba Nidhi Yojana’,” he said.

The CM further stated that a detailed guideline will be prepared and a committee, comprising experts, will be formed for the same. “The corpus fund will be increased in future as per requirement,” he said.

Majhi said that the School and Mass Education department has been directed to expedite the recruitment of 18,700 junior teachers.

These apart, around 5-6 lakh more eligible farmers (medium, large and those in urban areas) will be included under PM-Kisan, Majhi informed, adding that they were earlier denied the benefits because of hurdle created by criteria of KALIA Yojana of the previous BJD government.

He further said that defunct irrigation facilities will be revived and others strengthened between 2024-25 and 2028-2029 at an estimated cost of Rs 144.38 crore.

The Cabinet also approved the proposal to increase the wage of unskilled workers from Rs 352 to Rs 450, semi-skilled workers from Rs 392 to Rs 500, skilled workers from Rs 442 to Rs 550 and highly skilled workers from Rs 502 to Rs 600.

This was the second meeting of the state Cabinet after the maiden BJP government assumed office. The first Cabinet meeting was held shortly after the BJP ministry took oath on June 12 last month. It had then approved proposal to re-open all four gates of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, a key poll promise of the BJP, the following morning and to set up a corpus fund for immediate requirement of the 12th-century shrine.