Gond calls for young people to be the voice of the disadvantaged

Bhubaneswar: Minister for School and Mass Education and ST & SC Development Nityananda Gond on Friday called for awareness programmes to identify youth and serve as a voice of the underprivileged, besides taking various livelihood programmes to the grassroots level.

The minister reviewed the working of the ST and SC Development and Minority and Lower Class Welfare departments and directed the officials to prepare a 100-day action plan and vision document to take the department’s outreach to a new level.

Gond also asked officials to take up a new programme to build multipurpose community centres for tribal people across the state and urban housing programmes in and around Bhubaneswar to accommodate tribal family members and students.

The minister called for inclusion of students of class 11 and 12 under the ANWESHA scheme to provide quality education in English to intelligent boys and girls from tribal areas in urban areas. He also stressed the need to provide more hostels for boys and girls from SC and OBC communities across the state through government schemes as they continue to face difficulties in pursuing higher education.

To improve the economic condition of the people, Gond requested the officials to enable procurement of small forest produce at the Gram Panchayat level.

During his review, the Minister also suggested that Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana (PM-AJAY) should be made people-centric. Stating that timely disbursement of agricultural inputs for livelihood schemes like Mukhyamantri Janajati Jeevika Mission needs to be ensured, the Minister requested the senior officials to involve more and more PVTG groups through government schemes and Pradhan Mantri Janjati Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM-JANMAN).

Terming the unused government buildings (both under the jurisdiction of the states and the central government) as sheer waste of public money, the minister advised the department officials to map such buildings across the state and use them as hostels for SC, ST, OBC and minority communities across Odisha.

Hailing Koraput coffee as a unique tribal product of Odisha which is widely acclaimed by connoisseurs of quality and organic coffee across the world, Gond called for upgrading the product so that the tribal groups involved in its processing and cultivation could benefit from it.