Bhubaneswar: Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi Monday approved the revised Buxi Jagabandhu Assured Water Supply to Habitations (BASUDHA) scheme with a state-funded outlay of Rs 5,045 crore for implementation from 2026-27 to 2028-29.
Chief Secretary Anu Garg said the revised BASUDHA scheme is designed to strengthen rural drinking water across Odisha by addressing left-out habitations, incomplete projects, water quality challenges, infrastructure gaps, source sustainability concerns and emerging climate-related risks. The Cabinet also approved the Rs 650 crore ‘Building Odisha’s Irrigation (Project) Tourism Amenities’ (BOITA) scheme for a period of five years, Garg said.
The scheme aims to preserve and renovate historic irrigation structures, showcase traditional water management practices and unlock regional socio-economic opportunities through dedicated heritage irrigation structures, she added.
The Cabinet approved the Odisha Jan Vishwas Bill, 2026, marking the second and broader phase of the state’s regulatory reforms. The Bill proposes amendments to 62 provisions across 16 State Acts administered by 11 departments.
Thirty-five amendments across 11 Acts seek to decriminalise and rationalise minor, technical and procedural offences, while 27 amendments across five Acts aim to rationalise nine regulatory approvals. The proposed reforms include replacing disproportionate penalties and imprisonment for minor violations with monetary penalties, reducing duplicate approvals, extending licence validity and introducing intimation-based compliance wherever appropriate.
The Cabinet approved the Shree Jagannath Temple Land Management Rules, 2026, replacing the Uniform Policy, 2003 and Amended Uniform Policy, 2019. The new system will be fully online, covering applications, verification and settlement of temple lands. District-level committees headed by Collectors will conduct field verification, while the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee will issue No Objection Certificates.
The rules provide for valuation based on the higher of Benchmark Value or Average Land Sale Statistics. They also mandate GISbased mapping and digital inventory of temple lands, along with a publicly accessible dashboard and integration with the Revenue Department’s Bhulekh and Bhunaksha systems.
