Odisha to invest Rs 1,000 crore for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups

BHUBANESWAR: To improve the living standard of the people belonging to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), Odisha government plans to invest around Rs 1,000 crore to provide better housing and livelihood programmes for them.

Presiding over the Governing Council meeting of the Odisha Tribal Development Society (OTDS), Odisha Chief Secretary asked authorities to meet the housing and livelihood needs of the PVTGs through convergence of various ongoing programmes and projects.

The OTDS has also been asked to prepare draft MOUs to be signed with various societies and corporations operating under different departments for convergence and collaboration targeting investment of around Rs 1,000 crore during next two years, an official said.

There are around 20,000 PVTGs spread over 20 blocks of 12 districts in the state and they live in about 542 habitations, said A B Otta, the Director Scheduled Tribe & Scheduled Caste Research Institute.

The Chief Secretary has directed the Society and the Institute to work out specific action plan for saturating the housing and livelihood need of these vulnerable tribal groups.

The OTDS was formed with objective of providing support for planning, implementation and monitoring of tribal development programmes. Providing technical support to the departments and taking up capacity building activities for the stakeholders are other key objectives of the society.

Pati has directed that meetings of the society be held every six months.