Odisha: BJD to focus on women uplift, temple & infrastructure development in run-up to 2024

BHUBANESWAR: The Naveen-led BJD government, which completed three years in office in its fifth consecutive term on Sunday, is likely to focus more on areas such as women empowerment, redevelopment of iconic religious places, transformation of schools and infrastructure development in the remaining two years of the current term.
As the ruling dispensation gears up for the simultaneous assembly and Lok Sabha elections in 2024, chief minister Naveen Patnaik is likely to reshuffle the council of ministers soon to give his team a fresh lease of life. Some of the ministers, who have earned a bad name for the state government in the past three years, are likely to face the axe.
Naveen has already spelled out his priorities in the days to come with the state cabinet recently approving a proposal for the extension of the ‘Mission Shakti’ scheme for the next five years until 2026-27 with an approved budgetary allocation of Rs 4973.39 crore, a politically significant move. With the expansion of the scheme, the state government has set an ambitious target to advance bank credit worth Rs 50,000 crore to self-help groups or SHGs over five years.
Under the Mission Shakti started in 2001, the state government has organised around 70 lakh rural women in more than six lakh self-help groups. The state government ensures bank loans to these groups to take up various livelihood projects. The SHGs are considered to be the biggest support base of the BJD government and have been a key factor in the party’s successive victories over the past two decades.