Naveen announces one lakh pisciculture ponds for SC/ST people

Bhubaneswar, Nov 12 (UNI) In a bid to check the growing unemployment in the state, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced a novel scheme of providing job security to at least one lakh SC/ST people.

The new scheme would be implemented in all the 19 of the 30 districts where the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has been implemented.

According to the scheme one lakh ponds would be constructed to encourage pisciculture among the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes in the state.

The ponds would be constructed either on the land belonging to the beneficiaries or the government, which would be given to the beneficiaries on lease basis, Mr Patnaik said.

As per the scheme, the SC/ST and India Awas Yojana (IAY) beneficiaries would be given input support to carry out pisciculture in the ponds.

Besides, the ponds would also provide irrigation facility to nearly four lakh acres of land during the 'Kharif' and two lakhs acres of land in the 'Rabi' season.

While approving the project yesterday, Mr Patnaik had directed the Revenue, Panchayat Raj, Fisheries and Animal Resources department to jointly implement the scheme in close collaboration with the State Employment Mission.

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