566 Projects In Western Odisha Approved At WODC Meeting

Bhubaneswar: The Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) on Monday approved projects worth more than Rs 54 crore.

At the 61st council meeting of WODC in Bhubaneswar, 566 projects recommended by MPs/MLAs/others amounting to Rs 54.81 crore till March 31 were approved. Proposals received for completion of 1147 community centres/Kalyan Mandaps to the tune of Rs 64.24 crore, engagement of 4 more technical personnel in different districts and functioning of social media cell were also approved.

Chairing the meeting, WODC chairman Asit Tripathy said the grant-in-aid (GIA) from the government to the Council has been raised from Rs 200 crore to Rs 325 crore in 2023 -24 State Budget.

He emphasised on various measures taken for overall transformation and transparency in implementation of Council funded projects, utilisation of projects for public use, construction of auditoriums and livelihood projects including tourism related activities which are sustainable with local ownership. CEO Ajit Kumar Mishra outlined the agenda for discussion.

Deogarh MLA Subash Chandra Panigrahi, Lanjigarh MLA Pradip Kumar Dishari, Bargarh MLA Debesh Acharya and Khariar MLA Adhiraj Mohan Panigrahi raised various issues related to implementation of WODC projects.

RDC (North) Suresh Chandra Dalai and RDC (South) T Ao were also present in the meeting.