Major revamp in ULB administration in Odisha on the cards

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, July 30:

The Odisha government is going for a major revamp in the urban local body (ULB) administration very soon.

The Urban Development department has initiated a process to this effect following the approval of proposals by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

The proposals would be given a final shape at a joint meeting of the Urban Development and Finance departments in the first week of August. Besides, a proposal to this effect is likely to be tabled in the next cabinet meeting, official sources said.

As per the proposal, the Urban Development department, for the first time, will create a separate cadre of its own in which appointments would be made for eight different cadres of employees.

Creation of the new cadre would mean an additional Rs 128 crore burden on the state exchequer.

Apart from this, a decision has been taken to abolish 183 posts created some years ago.

On the other hand, the state government has also planned to increase the amount of compensation towards the losses  being incurred by several ULBs and Municipal corporations in the collection of Octroi taxes, the sources added.

To regulate the ULB administration, the government would create a special directorate  under which regional offices would be set up. The directorate will be headed by the civic body administrator,

After the creation of eight new cadres—Odisha Civic Administration Service, Odisha Civic Revenue and Finance Service, Odisha Civic Technical Service, Odisha Civic Public Health Service, Odisha Civic Community Development Service, Odisha Civic Governance Service, Odisha Civic Planning Service and Odisha Civic Ministerial Service—around 4773 new posts would be created.

It has also been decided to create three classes of employees like A, B and C under each new cadre.

Each city would be divided into eight categories according to the size of population.

As per 2011 census, cities having population of 10 lakh or above would come under category-1, 6-10 lakh under category-2, 3-6 lakh under category-3, 1-3 lakh under category-4, 50,000-1 lakh under category-5, 25,000-50,000 under category-6, 10,000-25,000 under category-7 and 5000-10,000 under category-8.

The sources also said that around 2500 new appointments would be made in the first phase.