Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced a slew of awards and scholarships for students and also teachers during the State-level Children’s Day celebrations held at the Capital High School ground here on Tuesday.

For development of Odia language and encouraging students’ interest in the language, Patnaik announced an ‘Odia Bhasa Puraskar’, under which 10 students of each block would get scholarships of Rs  5,000 each for scoring good marks in the language.

He also announced a ‘Mukhya Mantri Medha Bruti Puraskar’, under which Rs 5,000 scholarship would be provided for a total of 40,000 students for scoring good marks in HSC examinations.

Patnaik urged schools’ alumni to contribute something for an all-round development of schools under a ‘Mo School Abhiyan’ and announced a corpus fund of Rs  100 crore for the purpose. He said whatever one contributes for his school, double the matching grants would be provided by the Government.He announced a cash award of Rs  1 lakh for best three schools in each block. The Government would also felicitate the parents and teachers of the students securing good marks in HSC examination, he announced.

Patnaik told the students that they have three responsibilities: To study well and achieve their aim in life, to shoulder responsibility of their parents and to do something in return for the society and the country as a whole.

He urged the students to follow the footsteps of Madhubabu and Bijubabu and dream big and work for the self-pride of Odisha.

“Odisha has reached a very good position in all indicators. Education will take us to the next level of development. With our focus on quality education, we can take our State to next level. This can happen when all of us join together in a movement,” said he to students.

He further said, “Children constitute one-third of the population. I feel proud when I see in newspapers and television sets that our children are doing well in national and international competitions.”

later, the children were administered a pledge to work for the State’s overall development.

On the occasion, the Prince Dance group and singers Satyajit Jena and Ananya enthralled the audience. As many as 4,000 children from 26 schools from across the State were present. Ten platoons of police force supervised by more than 50 senior officers were deployed for smooth conduct of the programme.