Odisha Cabinet Approves Over Rs 286 Crore For Drinking Water Supply In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: Considering the rising demand for drinking water in Bhubaneswar, the Odisha Cabinet on Monday approved over Rs 286 crore for setting up a water treatment plant.

The Cabinet meeting, presided by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, approved 15 proposals including that of the Housing and Urban Development department for the drinking water supply in Bhubaneswar.

In a media address on the Cabinet decisions, chief secretary Suresh Mahapatra said the water treatment plant with a capacity of 130 MLD will be set up at Mundali. It will be implemented by Water Corporation of Odisha. The Cabinet approved a budget of Rs 286,73,22,142 for the project. It will be executed by LC lnfra Projects Pvt Ltd on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract including operation and maintenance for 5 years.

The Cabinet also approved the following major proposals:

• Creation of Leave and Training Reserve (LTR) posts in various categories of teaching posts in government secondary schools under School and Mass Education department. As per the proposal, 15% of the total cadre strength of 40,166 of teachers, totalling 6025 posts, will be created to meet the requirement of teachers’ unavailability due to leave, training and on medical ground.
• Construction of 237 boys’ hostels for Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas at a cost of Rs 1000.14 crore. The rough estimate per hostel with 100-bed capacity is to the tune of Rs 4.22 crore.
• 40 acre land in favour of Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal (SVKM) Trust at Goudakashipur in Jatni for establishment of Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal (SVKM) University. The proposed university will function as learning resource centre and provide national and global participation in higher education. The Trust will keep 30% of seats reserved for the underprivileged students of Odisha.
• Amendments in OFPP 2016 for enhancement of the timeline for claim submission from the present 1 year to 2 years for all types of incentives. As an one-time relaxation measure, enterprises who had already commenced production but failed to file claim application for incentives within the due date, are given time upto 30.06.2023 to file their claim application complete in all respect.
• Reduction of VAT on ATF to 1% for RCS fixed-wing flights/helicopters/seaplanes at any airport/heliport/helipad/water aerodrome in the state.
• Compensation to next of kin on account of death of prisoners in jails.
• Amendment of law to allow family pension to transgender child in the event of death of a government servant/pensioner.

In another major meeting on the day, the Council of Ministers approved the revised budget estimate for 2022-23 and annual budget estimate of Rs 2.3 lakh crore for 2023-24.