Odisha government

The Odisha government has been on a mission to close schools with poor student enrollment for years. Almost 200 schools with low student enrollment were closed in 2014. In 2019, close to 1,000 schools were closed. In reality, the state administration had intended to close over 14,000 schools in stages, but the figure was reduced to half last year when the Right to Education (RTE) Forum and opposition parties took up the cause.

The Odisha government on May 2 recognized the state’s working journalists as frontline workers amid COVID battle. Announcing Rs 15 lakh ex-gratia for the kins of COVID-19 infected deaths of scribes, CM Naveen Patnaik informed of covering 6,944 journalists under the Gopabandhu Sambadika Swasthya Bima Yojana. Under the scheme, the government will provide health insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh. Notably, over 11 journalists have succumbed to COVID-… read-more

To encourage the marriages of differently-abled people, the Odisha government has revised the cash incentives from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2,50,000. Besides, the Social Security and Empowerment of PwD Department has revised the guides for facilitating such marriages. For eligibility, both the residents should be from Odisha, and the wedding should be dowry free. Moreover, the incentive will be provided if one of the spouses is disabled. 

In a move to curb corruption, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik on December 21 made it mandatory for all government officials to disclose property details in the public domain. The CM also mandated all elected BJD representatives in the state, from Sarpanch to the CM, to declare their property details. He said Odisha will be the first state to implement such measure, wherein all the property details will be shared with "powerful" Lokayukta (ombudsman… read-more

Eleven-year-old Sushree Sangita Sethi of Odisha's Dukuka village marched 10 kilometres to file a complaint against her father to the collector. Sushree's said that her father siphoned off the government's mid-day meal money. Besides, he had also not provided the 150-gram rice that was allotted to Sushree. District Collector Samarth Verma ordered officials to transfer the benefits directly to Sushree's bank account and also recover the money… read-more