Naveen Patnaik Sanctions Rs 225.53 Cr For 36 ULBs Of 10 Northern Odisha Districts

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday approved Rs 225.53 crore, in the third and last phase, for 36 Urban Local Bodies covering 10 districts of Northern RDC Division under the state-funded flagship scheme MUKTA for the financial year 2023-24.

The districts covered are Dhenkanal, Angul, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Balangir, Subarnapur, Bargarh, Jharsuguda and Deogarh, a release from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said.

All these 36 ULBs have developed ward-wise feasible Annual Action Plans under MUKTA through a participatory process involving local citizens and key stakeholders. All these projects are demand driven, technically feasible and environmentally sustainable projects. These Action Plans have been screened at the department level before approval. All these approved projects to be taken up under MUKTA will be executed directly by Mission Shakti Groups as implementing agency.

It may be mentioned here that, 5T Secretary VK Pandian discussed with public representatives of 36 ULBs of these districts on June 16 regarding implementation of projects under MUKTA.

The Basket of Projects approved under MUKTA are climate resilient work, which includes creation of Civic Amenities (Mini Park, Open Air Gym, Child play station, Playground, Walking track, Loo, Vending Zones), Open Space Development, Water Body Development, Construction of Multi-purpose Community Centers, Wall Painting, City beautification and other Labour-oriented works.

“Mukhya Mantri Karma Tatpara Abhiyan” (MUKTA) was launched by Hon’ble CM on April 18, 2020 with a mission to create rapid, immediate and mass employment opportunities for urban poor, informal and migrant labourers, rendered unemployed and vulnerable in the face of Covid-19 infused crisis, while addressing the needs of creation of climate resilient, cost-effective sustainable and replicable community assets by implementing labor-intensive public works across 115 Urban Local Bodies.

MUKTA adopts a community driven, participatory and bottom-up approach ensuring transparency and accountability during entire stage of project implementation. MUKTA is a community driven scheme tailor made for Community Based Organisations (CBO) such as Women Self Help Groups (SHG) and Slum Dwellers Associations (SDA) to take the center stage.

As a whole, the Chief Minister has sanctioned Rs 833.21 crore in 3 phases covering all 115 ULBs of 30 districts of the state.