By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Shree Jagannatha Puri International Airport, Bharat Net Phase-ii, Incomplete NH Projects and Opening for more Banks in unbanked GPs of the State were among those issued were discussed between Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.
CM urged PM Modi that the site clearance of Puri from Ministry of Civil Aviation is pending since September 2022 and he requested that the same may be expedited.
“Further, a DPR was prepared for extending Bharat Net from the GPs to the villages and submitted to DOT No decision on the matter has been taken so far. Also the DPR for converting the Bharat Net linear network to an IPMPLS ring network and extending the same to districts and state capital, submitted by the state to the DOT, has been regretted. Decision for IPMPLS need to be taken by the DOT for the state of Odisha which is frequented by natural calamities like flood, cyclone,” the CM said.
There are as many as eight National Highway projects that are yet to be completed though many have started in 2017 and 2018, he added. Patnaik also requested him to extend the ‘Údyami’ scheme and provision of five free connections in each GP for Bharat Net Phase II.
“Odisha has 6798 GPs, out of which 2844 GPs (42%) are covered by 5774 Brick & Mortar branches. Rest 3954 GPs (58%) are covered by BCs / CSPs & IPPB Access Points. Although Business Correspondents (BCs) are put in place, they often face cash crunch leading to non-withdrawal of cash by beneficiaries,” Patnaik pointed out.
Department of Financial Services may put in place a two-year plan for covering all unbanked GPs of the State by bank branches. However, in order to avoid inconvenience to those elderly and disabled persons who are unable to visit the bank / BC points for receiving cash, relaxation may be granted for disbursement of pension in cash to maximum of 20% of the beneficiaries under NSAP, he maintained.
