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Bhubaneswar: With an initiative to uphold the collective wellbeing of the poor villagers of Rayagada district, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM) and Tata Trusts here yesterday.
The community-based project will cover the livelihood of 2,500 families of 550 villages in Muniguda, Bissamcuttack, Lanjigarh, Thuamula and Kotagarh of the district under South Odisha Initiative. The objective is to develop 250 model villages. These areas are one of the poorest ones of the State where malnutrition and high maternity mortality rate, among other problems, are acute.
Panchayati Raj minister Arun Kumar Sahoo, Panchayati Raj commissioner-cum-secretary D.K. Singh, Tata Trusts secretary and chief accountant B.S. Taraporevala and its regional director Jitendra Kumar Nayak were present during inking the deal.
Speaking on the occasion, Nayak said, “We have done the baseline research to identify the problems plugging those areas. For last 10 years, the population has not increased due to factors like spread of diarrohea, malaria and malnutrition. High maternal mortality rate is also a problem in these areas. We will try to improve the livelihood of the families of those areas by providing them community-based intervention.”
Nayak informed the audience that initiatives will be taken to provide healthcare facility to arrest the maternity and infant mortality rate. Care will also be taken so that the dropout rate could be decreased to 5% among the students between the age of 3-14 years and ensuring 80% of them achieve grade appropriate learning. For this sponsorship facility will be provided to them, he added.
Providing safe drinking water, sanitation facility and electricity to the households is also on the agenda. Initiatives will also be taken to provide electricity using solar energy. Improving the irrigation facility is also in the list. Nayak said, “Our primary aim is to improve the quality of life of the people in next three years while we have long term goals to accomplish too.”
Singh informed that at least Rs 105 crore will be invested in the project. “The people in these blocks are living in abject poverty and most of the residents are from backward classes. Fisheries, Irrigation and other departments work in rural areas separately. We are planning if combined efforts could be used to improve the livelihood of the other poor villages across the State,” he added.
Sahoo expressed hope that the initiative would improve the lives of the people of these neglected areas as, along with Tata, NABARD has also come forward to help in this regard.
