Odisha govt. announces array of women-centric incentives ahead of elections

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik announces 10 extra days of casual leave for women government employees.

In a bid to bolster support among female voters ahead of the upcoming elections, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on March 12 sanctioned annual 10 days of additional casual leave for women government employees.

“Government employees generally avail 15 days of casual leave every year. Odisha CM has announced additional 10 for women government employees. As a result of which women employees can now avail 25 days of casual leave annually,” a statement issued by Chief Minister’s Office said.

The decision has been taken keeping in mind the family responsibilities and various problems of women. In 1990s, Odisha was the first State in the country to reserve 33% of government jobs for women. Now, a sizeable section of the government employees are women. In some departments, women have outnumbered their male counterparts in the State, which has close to 4.5 lakh government employees.

For past two months, the Naveen Patnaik Government has been busy announcing sops for all sections of society while priority has been given to women.

On March 11, the State Government increased allowances paid for attending meetings by ₹500 for Mission Shakti federation functionaries. As per decision, block level Mission Shakti federation presidents and secretaries were getting ₹4,000 for every meeting. They would now get ₹4,500. Similarly, per sitting allowance has been increased to ₹2,500 from ₹2,000 for members of executive committees. Similarly, ₹500 per sitting has been increased for village level Mission Shakti functionaries.

This will cost ₹249.21 crore per year. There are a total of 676 block-level federation presidents and secretaries in the state, while the number of other members is 3,042. Similarly, there are 13,588 presidents and secretaries in gram panchayat federation while the number of other members is 1,08,704. It is expected that total of 1,26,010 women will be benefited.

On March 9, the government had also hiked bonus of Mission Shakti’s community Support staff. Master Book Keepers, Bank Mitras and livelihood assistants will get ₹10,750 per month, Agriculture Mitra and Animal Mitra  will be provided ₹6,250 while community resource persons will be eligible for ₹6,100. The decision would influence lives of 59,509 women across the State.