Dikhyaa Mohanty 
A separate Mission Shakti Department has been approved by the State Cabinet which will help in establishing the self-help group (SHG) initiatives commenced by different agencies of the government.
Last year on the occasion of International Women’s Day the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced having a separate department for women’s SHGs which will be formed by the state government. Tukuni Sahu, Minister for Women, Child Development and Mission Shakti stated that the separate department will help secure linkages at all levels and build compelling interactive platforms between the community and government for strengthening the SHG movement over the State.
The Shakti Department will also take down it under one platform to accommodate greater focus, synergy and also circumvent duplication in activities. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik while talking about the transformative journey of Mission Shakti, stated that the initiative started as a scheme and now has a completely separate department to carry forward the revolution with the greater focus. He also stated that this initiative will now synonymous with women’s empowerment, transforming the lives of millions.
According to the report the initiative will avoid conflict of command, ensure better service delivery, effective monitoring, and optimum utilization of human resources, she said. The department, which will contribute towards overall administration and programmatic coordination of SHG-centric development schemes, will start functioning from April 1.
Under this new department, the staff working under the Directorate of Mission Shakti and Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM) will come under the new department and the department will work for SHGs.
The Cabinet chaired by the Chief Minister also approved several other proposals including the creation of two new Excise districts, Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, and investment of Rs 637.45 crore to strengthen power infrastructure at Paradip to meet the demand of the Petroleum, Chemical, and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) project. The proposals for implementation of 10 mega rural piped water supply projects in Aul, Rajkanika, Chilika, Tangi, Banpur, Khurda, Jatni, Gondia, Bhuban, Golaminda, Jajpur, and Binjharpur blocks at an estimated cost of around Rs 1,085 crore was approved by the Cabinet.
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