Bhubaneswar, Feb. 19: Orissa continues to be one of the poorest states in the country, with a haunting unemployment problem — despite the government’s tall claims of rapid industrialisation.

“Its (state’s) economy is still characterised by high incidence of poverty,” an Economic Survey report for 2008-09 has now stated.

Quoting a Planning Commission estimate, the report further stated that the state had 39.9 per cent of people living below the poverty line, compared to an all-India total of 21.8 per cent.

According to the report, the rate of poverty reduction in Orissa has been hampered by natural calamities, a disproportionately large ST and SC population, preponderance of rural communities, inadequate irrigation facilities and lack of infrastructure.

Apparently realising that poverty was one of the major factors for economic backlog, the Naveen Patnaik-led government is now targeting to reduce poverty by 15 per cent during the Eleventh Plan.

The Vision 2020 document prepared by the government is also targeting poverty alleviation programmes to achieve an economic growth rate of 9 to 10 per cent by 2020. Poverty reduction through broad-based industrial growth would also be attempted.

Orissa has managed to attract large-scale investment from mineral-based industries, including steel, aluminium, titanium and cement plants, thermal power units, oil-refineries and auto ancillaries.

So far, the government has signed 49 MoUs with steel producers to set up plants with an estimated production capacity of 74.66MT per annum and a proposed investment of nearly Rs 2,00,000 crore, said industries minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan.

Out of these 49 firms, 28 have already started partial production achieving a production capacity of 4.01MT per annum, 5.16MT of sponge iron, 0.63MT of pig iron and 0.29MT of ferro-chrome.

However, the industries have provided direct employment to only 15,842 persons, official sources reported.

Similarly, the government has signed MoUs with 21 power companies to set up plants with an aggregate generation capacity of 27,000MW and with an investment of around Rs 1.2,00,000 crore, said energy minister Surya Narayan Patro.

However, most of these plants are yet to start.

During the current financial year, 2.08 lakh person years of additional labour force were projected to be added to the labour market, as against the estimated employment generation of 2.11 lakh person years. Thus, there is a likelihood of a backlog of about 14.07 lakh person years at the end of the fiscal, stated the economic survey report.