By Express News Service - BHUBANESWAR
18th May 2013 11:10 AM
Meetings of the Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) will now be rotated in districts under its jurisdiction instead of here to make the functioning of the council more effective.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting presided by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the Secretariat. The Chief Minister reviewed implementation of different projects initiated by the WODC and asked the officials to speed up their completion. Besides, a project monitoring unit will be set up to review the progress of projects undertaken by the council.
Official sources said ` 883.05 crore has been sanctioned for the WODC since it was formed in 1998 out of ` 652.63 crore has been spent. The Chief Minister asked the officials to speed up completion of different projects to utilise the unspent funds.
The meetings of the council will be held on rotation basis at the district headquarters towns of Angul, Bargarh, Balangir, Boudh, Deogarh, Sonepur, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Sambalpur and Sundargarh. Officials of the council as well as the members will be more acquainted with projects in progress in a district if the meeting is held at the district headquarters, an official said and added that review of the projects can be done more effectively.
Shifting of the headquarters of the council is one of the issues which has not been resolved as yet as both the State Government and the council have adopted a dilly dallying approach in this regard.
Besides, to check arbitrary allotment of funds for different projects under the council, it was decided to formulate a guideline in the line of the existing one for utilisation of fund under the MLA Local Area Development (MLALAD) Fund.
The Chief Minister directed the Revenue Divisional Commissioners (RDCs) and the district collectors to give priority to timely implementation of development schemes in backward blocks of western Odisha districts.
Besides, a decision was also taken to mention the time limit of a project at the time of sanction of funds for a project. The Chief Minister asked the collectors to review the activities of council every month and the RDCs every three months.
Planning and Coordination Minister Maheswar Mohanty, Chairperson of the council Padmini Sekhar Deo and senior officials attended the meeting.
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