Odisha To Spend Rs.4,000 Crore To Boost Rural Infrastructure

“The State Government has modified the guidelines of the earlier intervention “Ama Gaon Ama Bikash” by giving it a new dimension in the form of “Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha” under State Plan to make it effective from the Financial Year 2023-24 for taking up measures to augment rural infrastructure leading to accelerated growth as well as to Promote, Preserve and Protect Jagannath culture and tradition of the State”, the Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water Department said.

The intervention’s vision is to transform Odisha into a modern and aspirational Odisha while preserving and spreading the essence, soul, and spirit of Jagannath culture worldwide. Odisha is the land that gave the world Jagannath Culture, a culture based on universal love, service, and equality.

The scheme’s main goal is to provide missing links to existing small and vital projects and infrastructure development. Also achieving women’s and youth empowerment, bridging critical gaps in education, digital, and sports facilities, such as improving infrastructure for primary education and providing missing links to existing development infrastructure, construction, modernization, and expansion works, creating additional facilities for Mission Shakti Groups at the GP level, bridging critical gaps at the GP level to improve rural areas by providing urban facilities, development of sports facilities for the youth, providing banking facilities and improvement of digital access in terms of mobile connectivity, optical fibre connectivity, WiFi and internet connectivity.

There is budget provision of Rs. 4000.00 Crore under the scheme from the State Budget. The scheme will cover all Gram Panchayats in each Block of the State with entitlement of Rs. 50.00 lakh. The project cost shall be between Rs. 2.50 lakh to Rs.10.00 lakh. The projects under the scheme shall be suggested/ recommended by local people/community organizations/public representatives and other stake holders.

The consolidated G.P. wise project list of the Block shall be submitted to the PR & DW Department with the signatures of the Collector and the President of the District Zilla Parishad for due examination and approval by the Government.

The Panchayat Samiti will carry out the work in a departmental manner in accordance with the procedure. The Collector is authorised to select any other agency/agencies for work execution.

According to the official release, transparency measures such as a web-based MIS for monitoring the Scheme and a dedicated app for sharing photographs before, during, and after each project with GIS tagging will be developed under the scheme, the official release stated.