Orissa enhance inter caste marriage incentives

Bhubaneswar, Jul 21 (UNI) In a bid to encourage inter-caste marriage in Orissa, the state government today enhanced the incentives from the existing Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 with immediate effect.

The decision to enhance the incentive was taken at the meeting of the Scheduled Caste Advisory Board, chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Later talking to newsmen, Mr Patnaik said the government had also decided to create a corpus fund of Rs five crore for the Scheduled Caste Scheduled Tribe Finance Development Corporation.

Official sources said during 2006-2007, the Corporation had provided financial assistance to 14,000 people and kept a target to assist 18,250 scheduled caste and scheduled tribe people during the current financial year.

The Chief Minister said steps would be taken to impart training to 100 scheduled caste and scheduled tribe engineers to be employed in various software companies.

UNI