By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 31, 2016 : The Odisha government has created 55,567 jobs through new Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) by September this year, said an official on Sunday.

The state government has set a target to generate 3.30 lakh jobs by setting up 66,000 new MSME units during 2016-17, and the MSME department has facilitated setting up 17,741 units to create 55,567 jobs by the end of September.

It has drawn a district industries centre wise plan to achieve the objectives, but the department has failed to achieve the set target in 2015-16.

While the Naveen Patnaik government had set a target to generate three lakh jobs through 60,000 new MSMEs, it could only set up 53,895 units that created 1.75 lakh jobs in 2015-16, said the official.

Meanwhile, the state government has decided to engage a project management agency for development MSME clusters in the state.

There are about 1.5 million MSME units in the state providing jobs to 3.3 million people, said sources.

Sources also added that entrepreneurs are facing problem to set up their MSME units as the national banks are not extending loans to them. The state government has several times raised the issues at the meetings of State Level Bankers’ Committee.