BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today asked the rural development department to prepare a master plan within 45 days for overall development of seven mineral rich districts in the state.
Patnaik issued this direction while reviewing the annual performance of the rural development department on completion of one year of his fourth term in office.
The mineral rich districts, which would get funds under the District Mineral Foundation are Keonjhar, Sundergarh, Angul, Jharsuguda, Koraput, Jajpur, and Rayagada.
“The funds to be received from the District Mineral Foundation should be spent on basic infrastructure requirements in road connectivity, bridges and drinking water supply,” Patnaik said at the meeting and added that the District Collectors need to make adequate planning for proper utilisation of funds.
While changing the state government’s priorities from ‘Bijli-Sadak-Pani’ to ‘Bridge-Sadak-Pani,’ Patnaik set a target of constructing 200 bridges every year to ensure connectivity in the rural areas.
As the rural connectivity work was affected due to small water passages in villages, Patnaik told the department to construct small bridges under the Biju Setu Yojana, a state programme for rural areas.
Rural Development Minister Badrinarayan Patra, who attended the review meeting, said the department has set a target of constructing 800 small bridges in the next four years.
He said village having a population of 100 or above were now being connected by roads under the Mukhyamantri Sadak Yojana and there were plans to connect 7,535 small villages by constructing 20,000 km roads.
Patnaik asked the rural development department to keep in touch with the Union Rural Development Ministry to avoid funds scarcity for rural connectivity activities.
Patra also informed the meeting that the state government had so far supplied piped drinking water to the habitations of of all Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).
Prasanta Patnaik