The Centre has included four districts of Odisha in the Governance and Accelerated livelihood Security (GOAlS) project in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
This has been informed by Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh in a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The five-year project, meant to empower the backward tribal districts, would be launched in the districts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Nuapada and Kalahandi.
The `70-crore project would also be implemented in four tribal districts of Sukhma, Bijapur, Narayanpur and Balrampur in Chhattisgarh and West Singhbhum, latehar, Palam and Gumla of Jharkhand.
The project would ensure livelihoods under the National Rural livelihood Mission and provide innovative financial intermediation for entrepreneurs. It further aims at capacity building for youths, community leaders and other stakeholders by promoting participatory planning.
The project aims at establishing 100 collective agriculture and forest-based enterprises operated by women and youths and extending financial products and services to 1,00,000 tribal households.