Bhubaneswar, Jun 13 (PTI) Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Monday inaugurated a residential school for poor children here.

Patnaik inaugurated the Balasore branch of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Emami-KISS Residential School through virtual mode.

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Spread over 12 acres of land, the school has been built at a cost of Rs 50 crore and includes a mechanized kitchen, and a 25-bed hospital.

Inaugurating the facility, the chief minister said around 1,200 economically challenged students from Class I to 12 will be provided free education in this school at Remuna in the first phase under the CBSE curriculum.

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“KISS has taken initiative to open fully free residential schools for poor and underprivileged tribal children in 30 districts of Odisha. This would strengthen our initiative to give quality education to all children,” he said.

Patnaik said the state government was giving importance to education and is transforming the schools under the 5T initiative. More than 4,000 state-run high schools have so far been transformed with modern facilities, he said.

Odia Language, Literature and Culture Department Minister Ashwini Patra praised the initiative by KISS and Emami. Local MP Pratap Sarangi, Remuna MLA Sudhanshu Parida, KIIT and KISS Founder Achyuta Samanta, representative of the Emami group Susil Goenka and Balasore Collector K Sudarshan Chakravarthy were present at the function.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)