Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Eleven more blocks from Odisha have been approved by NITI Aayog to be included in the Aspirational Blocks Programme (ABP), bringing the total number of blocks from the state covered by the initiative to forty. The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) made the announcement of this development on the social media site X. Of the recently added blocks, six are from the Mayurbhanj district (Bahalda, Bijatala, Jamda, Kusumi, Rairangpur, and Tiringi) and five are from the Keonjhar district (Champua, Jhumpura, Keonjhar Sadar, Patana, and Telkoi).
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi requested that additional impoverished areas of the state be included in the development-oriented agenda, and the CMO said that this is why these blocks were included. Through the concerted efforts of Central and State initiatives, the Government of India’s Aspirational Blocks Programme seeks to accelerate development in underperforming blocks. In order to promote healthy competition and responsibility among districts for the efficient execution of welfare programs, the program also rates blocks according to important development metrics.
