Bhubaneswar: As many as 16 trainee IAS officers from Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, and Maharashtra are on a visit to Odisha under their Bharat Darshan programme. They were at the JAGA Mission office under Housing & Urban Development department today to get in-depth knowledge on the programme being implemented in Odisha.
Jaga Mission, “the world’s largest slum titling programme” focuses on the empowerment of the urban poor by providing land rights and upgrading slums into liveable habitats by providing basic infrastructures.
Bharat Darshan Programme is a segment of a training programme for promoted officers from State Civil Services into the Indian Administrative Service, conducted by Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. Under this programme, they will be visiting important National Institutions and infrastructure projects across India.
Mission Director Sangramjit Nayak recounted the journey of the mission, with a comprehensive understanding and its significance in achieving sustainable urban development.
He reiterated the mission’s objective of transforming all the slums of the state into liveable habitats by December 2023. With all the good work that happened under the mission, its impact on the life of slum dwellers and slum dwellers associations, and the global recognition accorded so far.
During the interactive session, the officers were curious to know the time took to get the initial results, how slum dwellers associations are accepted by the administration, what is the way forward, etc.
Then the trainees visited the Tapoban and Inshaneswar slums of BMC to witness the upgradation under Jaga Mission and interacted with the Slum Dwellers’ Associations to understand their perspective on the Mission.
After returning from the visit the trainee Officers had an interactive session with G Mathivathanan, Principal Secretary, H&UD department. He briefed them on the Urban Transformative journey experiencing significant strides in recent years in accordance with the 5T mantra of the administration in Odisha.
The State Government is committed for the enhancement of the liveability of the urban areas by providing all advanced amenities across all 115 ULBs of the State. The key thrust area like Urban sanitation, Mukta, Jaga Mission, drink from tap and recognising the crucial role of slum dwellers as community partners in building and sustaining cities was explained to them.
During the interaction and field visit, among others, Additional Mission Director Jaga Mission Sourindra Kumar Routray, Additional Commissioner BMC Laxmikant Sethy, Suchisnata Sahoo and her team from Jaga Mission were present. They discussed the background, objective, impact and achievement so far, on providing land rights to slum dwellers, transformation of slums into liveable habitat and creating new liveable habitats.
