Odisha Govt Puts In Place Rules To Enhance Funding To New Schemes

Bhubaneswar: With elections coming closer, the Odisha government has framed a new guideline for formulation of fresh schemes under programme as well as administrative expenditure to ensure better funding support.

According to the new rules, the government departments will carry out a proper assessment of the project with regard to their specific contribution related to the environment, disaster resilience, sustainable development goals, and gender and child sensitivity before proposing new schemes or projects.

The focus will also be on regional balance. The departments will indicate public benefits and outcomes of the schemes along with measurable milestones apart from the financial analysis on the internal rate of return and economic rate of return.

According to sources, the Finance department has intimated all departments to ensure that environmental-related assessment is undertaken, wherever required and measures identified to mitigate adverse impact, if any before finalising a new scheme or programme.

Stating that the new project must be secured against natural/man-made disasters like floods, cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis, it said the departments will have to indicate and justify the contribution of the project towards disaster-resilient measures, TNIE reported.

All future projects must highlight the integration of the 17 broad sustainable development goals and the impact analysis be made clearly about how to address the particular sustainable development goal with the implementation of the projects.

This apart, they will highlight how the proposed scheme intends to reduce regional imbalance. The involvement of local elected representatives and communities in scheme implementation will also be prioritised.

No new scheme can be proposed without addressing issues related to land acquisition, diversion of forest land, rehabilitation and resettlement. The departments will also indicate whether the proposed project is women or child-centric and how it is addressing the issues. The schemes should also meet the objective of equity, economy, efficiency and effectiveness, sources said said.

The administrative departments have been asked to merge, restructure or drop existing schemes and sub-schemes that have become redundant or ineffective with the passage of time to enhance efficiency and improve the economy.

The Secretary of the administrative departments can approve projects worth around Rs 5 crore while the minister can approve projects up to Rs 100 crore. Similarly, the chief minister can approve projects up to Rs 250 crore, while those above Rs 250 crore will have to be cleared by the state cabinet.