The State Government has urged the Centre for early release of financial assistance towards management of educational complexes for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in the State.
In a letter to Union Tribal Affairs minister Jual Oram on Wednesday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said Odisha has 13 out of the 75 PVTGs identified in the country.
These PVTG areas have very low levels of female literacy, for which 19 educational complexes were set up to bridge the critical gaps in education.
The Tribal Affairs Ministry has been providing funds under the scheme “Strengthening Education among ST Girls in low literacy districts” since 2008-09 for managing these educational complexes, which are being managed by the Odisha Model Tribal Education Society (OMTES), a State Government-sponsored society.
But as the Centre has not released funds under the scheme for the year 2014-15 and 2015-16, the State Government has incurred expenditure out of its resources, which has put an extra financial burden on its resources.
“Considering the above, I request you to personally intervene in the matter to ensure early release of allocations from your Ministry under the scheme amounting to `12.38 crore for the year 2014-15 and `13.04 crore for the year 2015-16,” the CM said.