CM Patnaik sanctions ₹225 crore for 36 urban local bodies

Representative Image

BHUBANESWAR, Odisha: Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik sanctioned ₹225.53 crore under the state-funded flagship scheme Mukhyamantri Karma Tatpara Abhiyan (MUKTA) in favor of 36 urban local bodies, covering 10 districts, for the current financial year.

The CM approved the districts covered under Northen RDC (Revenue Divisional Commission) which are Dhenkanal, Angul, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Balangir, Subarnapur, Bargarh, Jharsuguda and Deogarh.

Under the MUKTA scheme, all 36 urban local bodies have developed ward-wise feasible annual action plans through a participatory process involving key stakeholders and local citizens.

An official statement has been issued that all these projects are technically feasible, demand-driven, and environmentally sustainable projects. All these approved projects to be taken up under MUKTA will be executed directly by Mission Shakti groups as implementing agencies.

The projects approved under MUKTA are climate-resilient work, which includes the creation of civic amenities, open space development, water body development, and construction of multi-purpose community centres, city beautification, and other labour-oriented work.

The MUKTA programme was introduced by Patnaik in April 2020 with the goal of addressing the need of creating climate resilient, cost-effective, sustainable, and replicable community assets by implementing labor-intensive public works across 115 urban local bodies. Its target population is urban poor, informal, and migrant labourers who are unemployed and vulnerable due to the pandemic, and provide mass and immediate employment.

It was the third and last phase of the MUKTA scheme’s sanctions for the civic bodies. The state government has so far sanctioned ₹833.2 crore in three phases covering 115 local bodies of 30 districts.