Bhubaneswar: In a step forward to achieve its goal for universal coverage of drinking water supply, the state Cabinet, Monday, approved tenders for eight rural piped drinking water projects worth `1,324.83 crore in five districts.
The Cabinet has approved three different tenders to execute the eight projects in Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts. These projects will benefit 8.30 lakh people, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy told reporters here. Two water supply projects worth `333.88 crore have been approved for Deogarh district under National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP). Over 1.91 lakh people of 432 villages in 38 gram panchayats (GPs) under Barkote and Reamal blocks will be benefited from the project.
Similarly, he said, tender for two other water supply projects worth `349.38 crore have been approved for Dhenkanal district under Basudha scheme. This project will provide water supply coverage to 3.17 lakh people of 317 villages under 63 GPs of Odapada and Hindol blocks.
The third tender for execution of four drinking water projects worth `641.57 crore has also got the Cabinet’s nod. This project will be implemented in Sukinda block of Jajpur district, Hatadihi block of Keonjhar and Kusumi block of Mayurbhanj district. Over 3.20 lakh people of 384 villages under 63 GPs of the three blocks will be benefited from the projects, the Chief Secretary said.
Tripathy stated that all the water supply projects will be completed within a period of two years.
The Cabinet, which has approved a total of 11 proposals, has decided to bring the Aviation Branch dealing with air connectivity under Transport and Commerce department. Now, the Aviation wing of the state government is under the General Administration (GA) department.
“Considering the growing importance of the civil aviation sector and the role it plays in influencing lives of common citizens and for effective administration and development of a well-knit system, the entire connectivity network has been brought under a single department—Commerce and Transport,” Tripathy said.
The state government has also decided to abolish application fee, user fee and DeGS (district e-governance society) charges for issuance of resident, income, income & asset (fro EW), legal heir, guardianship and caste certificates.
Proposal for bringing 19 educational complexes meant for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) under the administrative control of ST & SC Development department on par with other educational establishments has been approved by the Cabinet. As many as 1,721 staffers of these education institutions will get higher salaries like other schools of the department, for which the state government will bear the additional cost, he said.
The Cabinet has decided to create additional 296 posts in Labour and ESI department by restructuring the Odisha Labour Service cadre. The assistant labour officers will be appointed in all blocks and will get four promotions in their life.
Other proposals including formation recruitment rules for the posts in the Chief Engineer establishments under Water Resources department, amendment of the recruitment rules of junior assistants, senior assistants, section officers in the GA department have also been approved.
