As hundreds of women working as support workers under Mission Shakti staged a protest outside the Parliament on various issues, the opposition BJD on Monday demanded immediate release of their salaries.
While agitating women shouted slogans on Mahatma Gandhi Road leading to the Legislative Assembly, the issue was raised in the House during the Hour by Opposition Chief Whip Pramila Mallik. He criticized the BJP state government for freezing the salaries of around 60,000 women who work as support workers for various women’s self-help groups across the country.
Explaining that these support workers were hired by the previous BJD government to help SHGs, Mallik said: “The BJP government stopped their salary after coming to power. There is fear among women that their jobs will be terminated.” He said former chief minister Naveen Patnaik empowered 70 lakh women in the state by bringing them under the umbrella of Mission Shakti.
BJD MLA Byamokesh Ray also supported Mallik and said that women have been appointed as MBK (Chief Accountant), Bank mitras, LSP (service provider), CRP (community resource persons), Krushi Mitra and Prani mitras. They are given share-based salary by the central and state governments.
BJD member Goutam Buddha revealed that they were appointed since 2011 under the guidelines of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission.
BJP member Manas Dutta, however, blamed the previous BJD government and blamed it for not extending their service contract which ended in April, 2024. “Who was in government in April this year? Why did the previous government not extend their duties,” he asked and accused the opposition BJD of misleading the agitating women.
BJD member Dhrubachanran Sahoo said that the previous government could not extend the Misson Shakti service which supports the workers as there is a pattern of conduct in the national election campaign in Odisha Assembly and Lok Sabha. “The new government should consider their case and release their salaries,” said Sahoo.
Meanwhile, women under All Odisha GPLF (Gram Panchayat Level Federation) Mission Shakti workers and Biju Shramik Samukhya Sangha staged a protest against non-payment of salary.
They said that despite their repeated efforts and requests, the Odisha government has “failed” to pay their salaries for the past nine months. For not finding another solution, they called it a protest, said the rioters.
“The new Odisha government has not given us our salary. Despite our repeated requests we have not received the money. We work as wage laborers every day,” said the protester.
President of Biju Shramik Samukhya Sangha Prafulla Samal and Mayor of Cuttack Subhash Singh held a discussion with the protestors at the protest site.