Bhubaneswar, Nov 14 (PTI) Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday approved Rs 45 crore for constructing 150 multi-purpose community centres for preserving the culture and heritage of the people belonging to minority communities in the state.

The construction of multi-purpose cultural-cum-community centres will be taken up in 22 districts, he said.

An amount of Rs 45 crore has been sanctioned for setting up these centres, he said.

These facilities will serve Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Sikhs.

“This initiative will go a long way towards the creation of space for the minority communities to undertake various community-based activities in the multi-purpose centres,” the chief minister said.

The announcement about the assistance for these community centres comes after 'Nabin Odisha' and '5T' transformational initiative chairman V K Pandian met the members of Cuttack Oriya Baptist Church, Church of Christ (Union Church), Bhubaneswar and BJD Minority Cell on Monday.

'5T' refers to teamwork, technology, transparency, transformation and the time limit on which the performance of government officials and projects are judged.

Meanwhile, the government has already undertaken the transformation of several places of worship such as Lord Jagannath Temple in Puri, Shree Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar and others. PTI AAM BDC