Odisha Cabinet approves drinking water projects, Handicrafts policy

Bhubaneswar:  Odisha Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today approved five rural drinking water projects worth Rs 3,200 crore in order to provide safe drinking water to rural households in the State.

All the drinking water projects are targeted to be completed within 24 months. The projects would benefit the people in 310 Gram Panchayats spread over 16 blocks in six districts like Angul, Bhadrak, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Khurda and Mayurbhanj.

The Cabinet also approved setting up of a Handlooms and Handicrafts Development and Promotion Council with an objective to more than 3.5 lakh weaver and craftsman families of the state.

“The newly formed council would assess the impact of the existing and new schemes for weavers and artisans in the state and advise the government to frame policies to best suit the sector, said Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi.

Similarly, the Cabinet decided to cover 5 lakh landless agricultural workers during the current fiscal year under its KALIA scheme. Earlier, the target was to cover one lakh landless farmers during 2018-19 fiscal.

The Cabinet also approved the proposal to accord university status to city-based institute, Asian School and Business Management (ASBM). A separate legislation will be brought in the Assembly in this regard, Padhi said.

The proposal to allot land in favour of various private organizations, which will set up affordable hospitals on public private partnership (PPP) mode has been approved by the panel. The land will be given on lease for a period of 32 years including two years for construction, he said. Such hospitals will be set up in rural areas in 25 districts.

The government has also approved the Odisha Children’s and Women’s Welfare Services (Amendment) Rules-2018 and framing of Odisha Secretariat Data Entry Operators (Method of Recruitment and Conditions of Services) Amendment Rules-2019.

The government has created new posts such as assistant data processing officer and data processing officer in lieu of abolition of 32 vacant posts of senior data entry operator.