Bhubaneswar, Nov 15: Union Minister of Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday urged Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to ask the officers concerned to sign an MoU with the Centre for the establishment of schools under the PM SHRI scheme.

In a letter to the Chief Minister, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, "As you may be aware the PM SHRI Scheme was launched on September 7, 2022 which aims to establish more than 14,500 PM SHRI Schools across the country. In this regard, all the States/UTs were requested to sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of School Education & Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India."

Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also stated that till now most of the States/UTs have signed MoU and the first phase of the selection of schools has been completed.

"First installment has also been released to implement the scheme for PM SHRI Schools. The second cycle of selection of PM SHRI Schools is in process. However, the State of Odisha is yet to sign the Memorandum of Understanding. Further many letters have been written to the State of Odisha including D.O. letter from me to you (copy enclosed). However, I am still to hear from the State of Odisha for signing of MoU," Minister Dharmendra Pradhan mentioned.

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“Therefore, I would request you again to issue necessary directions to the concerned officers to sign MoU for PM SHRI scheme with the Department of School Education & Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education (MoE),” Dharmendra Pradhan said in his letter to the Odisha CM.

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