Bhubaneswar: Odisha has been selected as the Best State for providing self employment to urban poor under SJGRY (Swarna Jayanti Sahari Rajgar Yojana), official sources said.
The Sate has been selected for National Award for 2012-13, and the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation has communicated this.
Dillip Routrai, presently OSD to Chief Secretary, who is said to be the man behind the successful implementation of the scheme said SJSRY is a joint venture of the Centre and the state".
He said the average project size (amount of assistance given to the individual self venture units) in Odisha has been around Rs 1 Lakh which is more than the average size of assistance provided in other states for which the projects in Odisha have been successful.
State has got a total fund of Rs.2,226 lakhs including Central grant and State share during 2012-13 under SJSRY, against which the utilization has been to the tune of Rs 3,447 lakhs, thereby recording an expenditure of more than 155 per cent.
Similarly, in Skill Development Training for Employment Promotion amongst Urban Poor(STEP-UP) a total number of 30,389 persons have completed the training and another 33,093 persons are undergoing the course, against a target of 23,000 persons to be trained in the year. An amount of Rs 700 lakhs have been utilized under this component.
The overall performance of SJSRY in Odisha has far exceeded its physical and financial targets both in quantitative and qualitative terms for which State has been ranked as the highest performing State during the year 2012-13.