Odisha Govt To Appoint District Officers As Project Directors Of DUDA On Contractual Basis

Bhubaneswar: In order to ensure effective management of the urban local bodies (ULBs), the Odisha government has decided to appoint district level officers as project director (PD) of District Urban Development Agency (DUDA).

As per the decision taken by the Housing and Urban Development department, the post of PD, DUDA will be filled up from the pool of superannuated officers from OAS/OFS/OPS/ORS/District Statistical Officer/District Small Savings Officer and any other district level officers.

The officers would undergo orientation, training and handholding along with a strong PMU and logistics to meet various functional requirements.

The State Urban Development Agency (SUDA) will engage the services of PDs in the districts where the posts are lying vacant. Their service will be purely contractual for 1 year. The expenditure for the purpose would be met from the capacity building fund available with SUDA.

The department has taken the decision as it has become increasingly difficult to effectively manage the ULBs across the state in the absence of effective supervision structure at the intermediate level.