Bhubaneswar: Sundargarh District Administration takes an important step to extend the Strategy for Odisha’s Pathway to Accelerated Nutrition (SOPAN), a new flagship programme of state government, to Non-SOPAN areas thus expanding coverage across all 17 Blocks and 4 ULBs of the district. The programme aims at addressing any nutrition gap in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers in this mining affected and tribal dominated region.
The state government’s flagship nutrition initiative for remote areas SOPAN is implemented with effect from 1st April 2022 at 125 blocks under 22 districts through the Anganwadi Centres (AWC). 7 blocks of Sundargarh district, largely affected by mining operations, were a part of this scheme. However, utilising funds from District Mineral Foundation (DMF), the local administration now expands this nutrition cover throughout the district. This extension programme was launched on Thursday at a special event in Sundargarh at Zilla Sanskruti Bhawan. The District Level ASHA & Gaon Kalyan Samiti (GKS) Convention was also organised on this day.
The administration also launched couple of key welfare programmes like ‘Kalika’ for daycare of working women’s children, the Transformation of Govt High School Hostels, development of village ponds, apart from launching the new website for DMF Sundargarh. Expansion of existing and implementation of new healthcare projects was also initiated on the occasion.
SOPAN shall ensure additional cover in the area of nutrition among the target beneficiaries in Sundargarh district. As per the provision, Severely Under Weight (SUW) children will be given specially formulated Chhatua for 75 days. Similarly, both pregnant women and lactating mothers shall be provided Hot Cooked Meal through the AWCs for 150 days each while adolescent girls are also given special attention to supplement their nutrition.
“Looking into the need of the people of various blocks of Sundargarh, we are trying to come up with diverse initiatives. The programmes launched today shall benefit children and women, students, working women, and the rural population at large. As a matter of priority, we are seeking suggestions and proposals from the public and involving the Gram Sabha while designing and delivering various projects”, informs Collector Sundargarh Nikhil Pavan Kalyan.
Being a leading industrial zone, Sundargarh has a sizable population of women workers and daily wagers. To help keep their children safe, provide nutrition and a learning environment, modern creches called ‘Kalika’ are being built by the district administration. In the 1st phase, 90 such creches are getting ready at 6 mining affected blocks.
Govt High School Hostels in Sundargarh district are being transformed with better facilities for the boarders. 135 Hostels are taken up for the transformation work in the first phase of the initiative. The transformed hostels will have modern library & reading room, tinkering and innovation, indoor games, gym, nutrition, extracurricular and other facilities for holistic development of the students.
The district administration lays special emphasis on pond development across 279 GPs at all 17 Blocks of Sundargarh. In the 1st phase, one pond will be rejuvenated at each Gram Panchayat in the district. As a result, the ponds will be developed for people’s use and to support agriculture & people’s livelihood.
To inform the public about various priority programmes supported by DMF, invite feedback and engage with various stakeholders, the new website of DMF Sundargarh www.dmfsundargarh.in was launched on the occasion. The website contains details of different DMF supported projects, Annual Report, Newsletter, Videos and Podcast and social media feed as a part of the outreach.
“With the launch of the DMF website, the general public, beneficiaries and stakeholders can get all relevant information of DMF supported projects and get connected using web & social media links”, informs the Collector Sundargarh Nikhil Pavan Kalyan.
Sundargarh District’s Flagship Health Programme ‘Matrujyoti’ was expanded. Kangaroo Mother Care Unit having Kangaroo mother care kit has been provisioned at 17 Maternity Centres of the district. Similarly, Neonatal Ambulance Service was launched while the administration signed a MoU with Rourkela based ASTHA Mother & Child Care Hospital as a referral centre for specialty paediatric health services at the ASHA & GKS Convention.
Under the district administration’s flagship public library and book reading initiative ‘Sundargarh Bahi Padha’, books were distributed among students, teachers and public libraries of Sundargarh. Similarly, various books were also given away for the inmates of Sundargarh, Rourkela and Bonai Jails.
MLA Sundargarh Sadar Kusum Tete, MLA Talsara Bhabani S. Bhoi, ZP President Kunti Pradhan, Chairperson Sundargarh Municipality Tanaya Mishra, Representative of Sundargarh MP Sukeshi Oram, CDM & PHO Dr Saroj Kumar Mishra, Director RGH Dr Santosh Kumar Swain, ADPHO Dr Kanhu Charan Naik, ADM & PHO Dr Purna Chandra Sahoo, NHM DPM Shankar Acharya, DSWO Prabasini Chakra, District Culture Officer Kuldip Xaxa, DIPRO Nandini Mundari were present on the occasion.
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