RABINARAYAN JENA, OP
Bhubaneswar: In a move aimed at accelerating development and improving the implementation of government schemes, the state government has revised its administrative strategy, assigning senior officers greater responsibility for field visits and other key official duties.
Chief Secretary Anu Garg has directed that senior officers will undertake field inspections and discharge important responsibilities, reducing the workload of departmental secretaries.
The move is intended to strengthen grassroots monitoring, improve administrative efficiency and ensure the timely implementation of government programmes.
The state government has been focusing on assessing the ground-level implementation of welfare schemes, increasing budgetary allocations for public-oriented programmes and encouraging officials to interact directly with people.
Officials have also been instructed to stay overnight in districts and engage with residents to understand local issues and identify possible solutions.
According to the minutes of a recent meeting, senior officers will not only visit districts but may also attend secretary-level meetings, which are held around twice a month, if the concerned departmental secretaries are unable to participate.
In such cases, the respective departments must inform the Chief Secretary in advance and provide complete details of the officer designated to represent the secretary at the meeting.
Garg has also directed all engineering departments in the state to increase expenditure on their respective programmes by at least 9–10 per cent over the next six months.
The directive is aimed at accelerating the implementation of government schemes and expediting infrastructure development across the state.
Ahead of the preparation of the supplementary budget, Garg has asked all departmental secretaries to focus on key priorities to improve spending and project execution.
Each department’s secretary will conduct a monthly review meeting with the department’s directors and senior officers to assess progress and identify schemes where expenditure needs to be increased.
The meetings will also focus on preparing a clear roadmap for improving budget utilisation.
Garg further stressed the need to complete tendering processes within stipulated timelines to ensure that projects are completed on schedule.
Departments have also been instructed to expedite the preparation of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) and take other necessary decisions to avoid delays in project implementation.
The measures are expected to improve administrative coordination, strengthen field-level monitoring and accelerate the utilisation of funds for development projects across Odisha.