Just hours after taking oath as the new Chief Minister of Odisha, Mohan Majhi chaired the first cabinet meeting of the new government and took 4 key decisions in line with the pre-poll promises made by the BJP in its Sankalp Patra.
In the first major decision, the CM announced that the four doors of the Puri Srimandir will be opened tomorrow morning in the presence of the members of the council of ministers. As per the CM, the council of ministers will visit Puri and the doors of the Srimandir will be opened during the Mangal Alati tomorrow morning in their presence.
In the second major decision, the cabinet has also decided that a corpus fund of Rs 500 crore will be created for the management, repair and beautification of the Puri Srimandir.
Moreover, the government will bring a special scheme for farmers named 'Samrudha Krushaka Niti' in which the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy will be increased to Rs 3,100 per quintal very soon.
It has also been decided that the Subhadra Yojana will be implemented for the welfare of women and children in the State. The cabinet has approved to provide a cash voucher of Rs 50,000 to each woman under the scheme within 100 days.
"After the oath-taking ceremony, the first cabinet meeting was held at the Lok Seva Bhawan today. Taking into account various problems and the issue of 'Asmita' of Odia people, four major decisions have been taken in the cabinet meeting. Considering the huge rush and inconvenience caused to the large number of devotees at Puri Srimandir, it has been decided that all the four dwaras (doors) of Srimandir will be opened during the Mangala Alati tomorrow in the presence of the council of ministers as mentioned in the BJP's election manifesto earlier. The decision has been taken to facilitate smooth darshan of the devotees," said Majhi.
"Secondly there was no proper allocation of funds for the management, beautification and repair of Srimandir earlier. The cabinet has decided that a corpus fund of Rs 500 crore will be granted for the management, repair and beautification of the Srimandir soon. The government will bring a special scheme for farmers named 'Samrudha Krushaka Niti'. Under the scheme, the government will take steps to provide MSP of Rs 3,100 per quintal of paddy to the farmers as mentioned in BJP's election manifesto earlier. The concerned department has been ordered to prepare and present a blueprint and guidelines in this regard so that the government could implement it within 100 working days," he further said.
"The fourth decision is regarding the welfare of women and children. Though the previous government had formulated various schemes for the empowerment of women and Mission Shakti, those schemes have failed. The new government has decided that Subhadra Yojana will be implemented for the welfare of women and children in the State. The cabinet has approved to provide a cash voucher of Rs 50,000 to women under the scheme within 100 days," Mohan Majhi said.