Bhubaneswar, Oct 9:  The Odisha government launched "Gramodaya", a new scheme to ensure that welfare programmes reach the people living in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected districts, officials said on Wednesday.

This initiative will cover 583 villages spread across 10 LWE-affected districts of the state, they added.

The notification for the initiative was issued by the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department on Tuesday, a day after Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi made such an announcement at the meeting of the Chief Ministers of LWE-affected states chaired by Union Home minister Amit Shah at New Delhi on Monday.

The initiative will be implemented in the districts of Bargarh, Balangir, Boudh, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada and Rayagada.

The objective of the programme is to converge all the departments of the state government which will work together to ensure effective development of the LWE hit areas. However, there is no special budgetary allocation for the initiative as funds would come from departments earmarked for different schemes.

For proper implementation of the initiative, the government has constituted a state-level monitoring committee under the chairmanship of chief secretary. Secretaries of different departments will be the members of the state level committee.

The district level committee will be headed by collectors and consist of district-level officials. At the block level, the committee will consist of block-level officials and will be headed by the BDO.

To further ensure and monitor the implementation of the initiative, a LWE dashboard to be developed for the purpose.

Special awareness campaigns, Gram Sabhas, grievance hearings and outreach activities will be made for the implementation of the programme at the grassroots level, an official said.

A collaborative effort involving government agencies and the local community will be ensured for the effective implementation of the initiative, he added.

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