Assam Prepares for Orunodoi 3.0 Rollout, 20 Lakh New Beneficiaries to be Added

GUWAHATI: The Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, today chaired a high-level meeting to finalize the draft guidelines for the rollout of Orunodoi 3.0 in order to uplift the socio-economic terrain of Assam, which is the state's flagship welfare program. This phase will be implemented across the state, thus increasing the beneficiary coverage by an additional 20 lakh, taking the total number of recipients to as many as 47 lakh.

The Orunodoi scheme, which was targeted at providing financial assistance to economically backward families, is to be extended in a big way from September onwards. Sarma added that beneficiaries of the scheme would necessarily need to have both Aadhaar and ration cards. It also deliberated on the preparedness of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department with regard to issuance of National Food Security Cards to facilitate the smooth implementation of Orunodoi.

The CM, while deliberating in the meeting, has assured that every necessary step is being taken to see the programme is smoothly and timely executed. "The main goal of Orunodoi 3.0 is to empower the households financially so that it propels socio-economic development across the state," added Sarma, while highlighting the change that has been brought in by the scheme till date.

Besides this, Sarma studied the plans chalked out for increasing the procurement of the agricultural produce by the government. As many as the procurement target for paddy and mustard crops are set to see a mass increase. From 11,000 MT this year to 30,000 MT the next, the target for mustard procurement is likely to go up nearly threefold, while targets for paddy are to be expanded to boost the local agricultural production.

And in tune with this, the big programme to give a fillip to the local entrepreneurs under the Atmanirbhar Asom Abhijan is also being initiated. Under this, funds will be distributed among 30,000 selected beneficiaries in two phases. The first phase is targeted for September 30th in which each entrepreneur will get Rs 2 lakh. The support for funding will create self-sustenance and entrepreneurship, bringing newer vigour to the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Assam. The final list of beneficiaries will be selected through district-wise interviews.

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