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Odisha

Odisha has a geographical area of 1, 55,707 sq.km. (4.7 percent that of India) and population of 41.97 million (3.47 percent that of India). The State is endowed with rich mineral resources, dense forest and a coast line of 480 km. It has about 11 percent of the water resources of the country and large varieties of agro-climatic conditions to support all kinds of crops and plantations.’’ Land use data for Odisha 2014-15 show ‘‘Forest area accounts for the maximum share of the total area of the State (37.3 percent), followed by Net area sown (35.3 percent) ’’. Odisha has a ‘‘very rich marine resource base’’ and India’s largest brackish water lagoon Chilika. ‘‘In spite of this, development process in the State has been rather slow historically and State has lagged behind the national average, in terms of a number of development indicators.’’ (Source: Annual Plan 2016-17 Odisha, Volume I, Planning & Convergence Department, Government of Odisha)

Housing & Urban Development (H&UD) Department, Government of Odisha

H&UD Department is one of the two partner departments in Odisha for the project. It is responsible for ‘’ensuring proper and planned growth of cities and towns with adequate infrastructure, amenities and services provided to the citizens through the Urban Local Bodies and parastatal agencies’’. Some major functions of the Department extracted from the official website of Government of Odisha are listed below.

  • Implementation of urban governance reforms (Eg: AMRUT, 14th Finance Commission, etc).
  • Formulation & implementation of enabling policies/guidelines.
  • Implementation of Comprehensive Development Plans (CrDP), City Development Plans (CDP) & Master Plans (MP).
  • Capacity development of existing personnel & elected representatives.
  • Creation of a dedicated Urban Cadre.
  • Benchmarking urban services (Service Level Benchmarking-SLB).
  • Designing & implementation of innovative pilot projects in selective areas with community participation.
  • Implementation of replicable models/good practices.

The H&UD Department functions through the following three Directorates:

  1. Directorate of Municipal Administration,
  2. Directorate of Town Planning, and
  3. Public Health Engineering Organization (Urban).

Directorate of Town Planning (DTP), Government of Odisha

DTP, H&UD Department, Odisha, ‘’the nodal agency for all urban planning related activities in the state’’, is also designated as the nodal department for the project. The Directorate is headed by the Chief Town Planner and Director, and it performs the following important functions, listed below from the official website of Government of Odisha:

  • Preparation of master plans and approval of the same on behalf of special planning authorities.
  • Preparation of project reports for the IDSMT and monitoring of the schemes.
  • Technical guidance to Government as well as planning authorities with respect to regulation of plan proposals.
 

Revenue & Disaster Management (R&DM) Department, Government of Odisha

R&DM Department is the other partner for the project, and is concerned with problems of all social groups and stakeholders. The Department mandates are related to ‘’solving people’s problems relating to land; these also include providing land to the landless and protecting the Government land. The Department shoulders the responsibility of providing immediate relief to the people affected by various calamities’’, and is also responsible for rescue, rehabilitation and restoration work.

‘’In the matter of transfer of property, particularly the transfer of immovable property, the Registration Offices under the R&DM Department play a key role’’; other activities of the Department, mentioned in the official website of Government of Odisha, are listed below:

  • Computerization of Revenue Offices
  • Updation of land records and Digitization of cadastral maps
  • Inter-connectivity among revenue offices
  • Under taking survey operations using modern technologies
  • Distribution of Government waste land for agriculture/ homestead purposes
  • Distribution of ceiling surplus land, prohibition of tribal land alienation
  • Regularisation of pre-1980 forest villages and encroached human habitations in forest areas
  • Acquisition of private land for public purposes
  • Formulation of comprehensive rehabilitation and resettlement policies for displaced persons
  • Administration of minor minerals of the State
  • Conduction of decennial census