Bhubaneswar: Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra today directed senior officials to ensure assured and livable habitats for slum dwellers in urban areas of Odisha. Mahapatra was addressing a workshop on basic infrastructure under JAGA Mission held at the Lok Seva Bhavan here on Monday.
The standard operating procedure for grant of land rights and upgradation of slums in urban local bodies was discussed in the meeting. The benefits will also be extended to the old slums (habitats) in urban forest areas, the State Government informed.
“Provision of descent and livable habitats for urban dwellers is the dream of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik; and, he has launched the path braking campaign JAGA Mission for the purpose. The first phase of the Mission emphasis focused on grant of land rights to the slum dwellers of the NACs and Municipalities. In the present second phase, the focus is on up-gradation of the slums and mainstreaming those with the urban living,” the Chief Secretary said.
Mahapatra directed to ensure assured, descent and livable habitats for the old slum dwellers in all the urban bodies including the old slums in urban forest areas. Such provisions would be a right solution to the challenging problems like encroachment, evacuation, congestion, and poor living conditions in slums.
Additional Chief Secretary Forest, Environment and Climate Change Dr Mona Sharma said that a well thought out standard operating procedure (SOP) for up-gradation of urban slums was worked out following the doctrines laid by the Chief Secretary. The SOP would resolve the problems relating to land rights and infrastructure development for the slum habitats in urban forest areas.
Principal Secretary Housing and Urban Development G Mathivathanan said that Odisha’s Jaga Mission received World Habitat Award-2019, and Asia-Pacific Housing Award-2021. He added that Government launched the special campaign for transforming the urban habitats to Biju Adarsha Colonies.
Mathivathanan added, around 3000 slum habitats containing 168,141 slum households were identified through a special survey named Urban Slum Household Areas (USHA) undertaken with geo-spatial technology in NACs and Municipalities. Out of this, 70,000 HHs were granted in-situ land rights and 1,03,328 HHs were granted land entitlement certificates. In the meanwhile, 550 slums were upgraded and mainstreamed with urban life.
Mahapatra asked the department to complete up-gradation of all the identified slums by end of the current year.
Director Municipal Administration Sangramjeet Nayak appraised that as per USHA survey, 253 slums spread across 45 ULBs in 22 districts were found to be in urban forest land. Because of the forest area, problems cropped up with regard to settlement of land rights and laying of infrastructure for basic amenities. The SOP worked out through joint venture of forest and urban development department was piloted in the Dhenkanal municipality. The result was a total success.
With success of the pilot project, the Government decided to implement the SOP in all 253 slums in urban forest areas. Today’s workshop was organised to sensitize the Collectors and field officers about the SOP and its implementation. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Sishir Kumar Ratho directed the DFOs to prioritize implementation of the SOP.
On this occasion Chief Secretary felicitated Dr Prakash Chand Gogineni, DFO, Dhenkanal, Bhubanananda Mishra Forest Range Officer Dhenkanal, and Atanau Samanta Executive Officer, Dhenkanal Municipality for having successfully implemented the SOP in Dhenkanal Municipality within a stipulated time period.
The Collectors, DFOs and Executive Officers of the ULBs participated in the workshop through video conferencing. Additional Secretary Sushant Kumar Mishra coordinated the workshop.
