Bhubaneswar: Focusing child nutrition, Centre sanctioned Rs 100 crore to Odisha under National Nutrition Mission (NNM) for nutritional development of children.

The newborns, pregnant women and lactating mothers in 11 districts will be included under the NNM, sources in the Women and Child Development department said.

The districts included Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Balangir, Boudh, Sonepur, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur.

Notably, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has sanctioned Rs 33.30 crore to Odisha in 2017-18 financial year for nutrional development of children.

The Centre has allocated over Rs 9,000 crore for the next three years apart from this fiscal for implementation of NNM across the country to drop the child malnutrition rate to 25 percent. Total Rs 379.62 crore has been sanctioned under the scheme for 315 districts this financial year.

The scheme will be implemented in 11 districts and 24,757 anganwadi centres in Odisha. While 4,706 anganwadi centres will be included under the scheme in Mayurbhanj district, 14 projects will be functional under the scheme at 3,264 anganwadi centres in Koraput district.

Similarly, 3,257 anganwadi centres will be included under the scheme in Keonjhar district.

The Union Ministry of Women & Child Development has asked the state government to prepare a blue print for implementation of the scheme.