Bhubaneswar,Dec. 20: The Odisha government on Thursday approved 126 new projects for construction of 21,894 dwellings in 88 urban local bodies (ULBs).
The new projects were approved during the State Level Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee meeting headed by Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi.
The Odisha urban housing Mission has made headway in the state with completion of around 16,000 houses in last three months and another 20,000 houses in different stages of completion.
Chief Secretary Padhi directed the Mission to prepare Housing for All plan of action plan on saturation mode for urban poor. Target was set to complete the survey for the purpose by end of this year.
Chief Secretary also advised the housing and urban development department to include bath facility along with the toilet for dwelling units under the scheme.
Secretary Housing and Urban Development Mathivathanan appraised that following Government instructions, third party quality monitoring of the implementation is being regularly undertaken in various ULBS. So far, 118 visits have been made by the third party and no serious irregularities have been found with regard to selection of beneficiaries and quality of construction of the houses.
All the houses constructed under the Mission have also been geo-tagged. Since the scheme is a beneficiary led scheme, the monetary assistance is being released to bank account of the beneficiary directly from the Government. Sri Vathanan further appraised that Odisha was the first State in the country in introducing online transfer of benefits directly to the beneficiaries.
Available data show, earlier 72,542 dwelling units were sanctioned for 112 ULBs. Out of this around 16000 houses have been completed as of now. Another 20,000 houses are in different stages of completion.
Other 26000 houses have been taken up for construction and balance are in process of scrutiny. With today’s sanction, total number of dwelling units sanctioned under the Mission goes up to 94,436 in 112 ULBs.
Mission Director Dr. Dalai said that the process for preparation of Housing for All Action Plan in all the ULBs is being undertaken simultaneously along with construction of houses. Survey work has been expedited in all the 114 ULBs. So far, around 1.6 lakh eligible beneficiaries have been identified. Target was set to complete the survey by end of current month.
Prasanta Patnaik