Out of 147 panchayat industries set up during former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik in the 1960s, only 10 are operating now.
This was revealed from the information submitted by MSME Minister Prafulla Samal in the State Assembly in response to a question of BJP MlA Dilip Ray on Friday.
Out of the rest 137 such industries, while four have been fully closed, 133 have either remained out of operation or on the verge of closure.
The working 10 units are at Hatatota in Angul, Nilgiri and Remuna in Balasore, Jaanla and Jatni in Khordha, Chhatia and Jajapur in Jajpur, Chhatrapur in Ganjam, Jharsuguda and Nabarangpur.
While Ray wanted to know that if the Government has any plan to set up agriculture based industries in all gram panchayats, the Minister informed that a total of Rs 9,621lakh was invested for establishment of 343 such industries in 2017-18 and the Government has planned to invest Rs 13,125 lakh for establishment of 750 agriculture based firms during 2018-19.