Odisha has been selected as the Best State for providing self employment to the urban poor under SJGRY (Swarna Jayanti Sahari Rojgar Yojana), official sources said.
The state has been selected for the National Award for 2012-13 and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has communicated this to Development Commissioner Injeti Srinivas in a letter, the sources said.
The award will be conferred to the state at a programme in New Delhi on January 21, the sources said.
Srinivas has credited the success of the scheme to officials involved in its implementation.
Dillip Routrai, presently OSD to Chief Secretary, who is said to be the man behind the successful implementation of the scheme said, "We took up the programme in mission mode as urban development in the state is gaining momentum in recent days."
Odisha, he said, has "rightly been chosen" as the best state among 14 other major states implementing the programme.
The average project size (amount of assistance given to the individual self venture units) in Odisha has been around Rupees 1 lakh which is more than the average size of assistance provided in other states for which the projects in Odisha have been successful, he said.
Odisha has far exceeded the targets in all the important components of the programme like Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP), Skill Development Training for Employment Promotion among Urban Poor (STEP-UP) and Urban Women Self Help Programme (UWSP) and has set a new height of achievement, he said.
The state got a total fund of Rs 2,226 lakh, including central grant and state's share, during 2012-13 under the SJSRY, against which the utilisation has been to the tune of Rs 3,447 lakhs, thereby recording an expenditure of more than 155 per cent, he said.
