Chief Secretary GC Pati on Monday asked the Odisha Tribal Development Society (OTDS) officials to provide houses and livelihood means to people belonging to the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) through convergence of various ongoing programmes and projects.
Pati issued this direction while presiding over the Governing Council Meeting of the OTDS at the State Secretariat here. ST Welfare Director Raghu Prasad Dash presented issues for discussion.
Pati asked the OTDS to prepare draft MOUs to be signed with various societies and corporations operating under different departments for convergence and collaboration targeting an investment of around Rs 1000 crore in coming two years.
ST& SC Research Institute Director Dr AB Hota present at the meeting said that there are around 20,000 PVTGs spread over 20 blocks in 12 districts. They are living in near about 542 habitations.
Pati directed the OTDS, which provides support for planning, implementation and monitoring of tribal development programmes to the Government, to hold a meeting in every six months and plan out interventions necessary with feed back from the field.
It was revealed that the OTDS has taken up Focused Area Development Plan (FADP) for supporting ST families with viable livelihood options. Around 13 specific land and non-land based livelihood focus areas have been identified. The major ones include wadi- agro horticulture, coffee cultivation, rubber cultivation, commercial vegetable cultivation, micro enterprise, goat rearing, placement-linked skill development and tribal handicraft & handloom.
Chief Secretary has directed to prepare an estimate of around Rs1,000 crore to be invested in augmenting these activities and for providing assistance for house construction.
The society has been advised to enter into agreement with MGNREGA society, NRlM, Odisha livelihood Mission, ORMAS, National Horticulture Mission, Watershed Mission and Forest Development Corporation and to dovetail funds from various housing schemes like Biju Pucca Ghar and IAY.