Odisha government plans Rs 734 crore international loan for PVTG development
BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government is planning to take another loan of Rs 734.86 crore from International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) to implement the second phase of Odisha PVTG Empowerment and Livelihood Improvement Programme (OPELIP-II).
The government had also collaborated with the IFAD for implementation of the first phase of OPELIP in 2016-17.
The state is home to 13 PVTGs living in 1,679 villages across 14 districts. Of these villages, 1,138 are being termed as newly-identified as they were notified as PVTG villages just four years back. The entire PVTG population stands at 2.94 lakh in the state.
Aimed at supporting these vulnerable tribal communities, the government has decided to scale up the OPELIP model in the newly-identified 1,138 PVTG villages. While the project implementation cost has been estimated at Rs 2,422.13 crore, the loan component has been fixed at Rs 734.86 crore from IFAD.
As international loans are routed through the DEA, the ST & SC Development department had earlier this month asked its Finance counterpart to take up the issue with the former so that the OPELIP-II loan demand is included in the agenda of the IFAD executive board meeting that is currently underway at Rome, Italy.
The department’s plea comes with a sense of urgency as the next executive board meeting of IFAD will be held in April, 2025.
Back in 2016-17, the state government in collaboration with IFAD had implemented the OPELIP for a period of eight years (ending in March this year) for livelihood improvement of 13 PVTGs living in 541 villages. Then, the project cost was Rs 711.25 crore of which IFAD’s share was Rs 318.49 crore.
Tribal rights activists, though, question the department’s hurried move to secure the IFAD loan. The loan plea comes at a time when the Centre is implementing the PM-JANMAN scheme which is also aimed at uplifting the living standards of PVTGs.
Although NITI Aayog has supported the proposed OPELIP-II, it has raised a similar concern. While seeking to know the outcomes achieved in OPELIP-I and proposed outputs from the second phase, it asked the state government to better utilise the Centre’s Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes funding of Rs 12,985.32 crore sanctioned from 2020-21 to 2022-23. “The state should allocate tribal population proportion of funds for tribal sub-plan as mandated under the NITI Aayog guidelines,” it said.
