The tribals-dominated Gajapati district has been awarded by the NITI Aayog for best practices in financial inclusion and skill development post-Cyclone Titli, that hit the district in October 2018. District collector Anupam Saha received Rs 3 crore as supplementary fund from Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant at a function held in New Delhi on Wednesday.
After the cyclone, Gajapati district faced many challenges in transfer of different benefits to beneficiaries due to lack of bank branches in remote gram panchayats. Under an agreement, SBI and Utkal Grameen Bank (UGB) open mini banks and conducted financial transactions with people. As many as 27,463 SHG members have opened accounts in banks.
Under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), 11,460 candidates have been mobilized and, of them, over 450 trained in different crafts.