Bhubaneswar: G. Mathi Vathanan, Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development said effective delivery of Urban Services are rendered with the support of Technology and Community.
Shri Mathivathnan along with Chakravarti Singh Rathore, Collector, Jajpur and Vijay Kulange, BMC Commissioner made a presentation on the Effective delivery of Urban Services through Technology and Community Partnerships for the citizens of all 115 Urban Local Bodies of the State.
The senior officials explained the vision of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for urban Odisha to improve the quality of life of urban denizens fuelled by community partnerships and driven by leveraging technological adoptions.
Shri Mathivathnan said that there has been a constant drive to improve the liveability of the Cities. With special focus on the underprivileged communities, efforts are on providing them access to liveable habitats, clean drinking water and ensuring livelihood opportunities. Flagship initiatives of ShriNaveen Patnaik’s government, such as Jaga Mission – the world’s largest slum land titling and upgradation program is transforming the lives of 17 Lakh slum dwellers. Similarly, under MUKTA the poor and the marginalized are provided with wage employment opportunities to secure their livelihood. Odisha created history when Puri became the first city in India to provide round the clock directly drinkable quality of water at consumer’s taps to all its residents, assuring ISO10500 quality water. These initiatives are a testament to the Chief Ministers’ unwavering commitment to improving the standard of living of the common people.
The government’s belief that slum dwellers are an integral part of the city fabric and deserving of security of tenure rather than eviction has been acknowledged and rewarded globally. In 2021, Odisha was awarded the PMAY-U award for “Best Policy Initiatives by State” and in 2023, the State was honoured for the record second time with the prestigious “World Habitat Bronze Award” by UN-Habitat. Similarly, MUKTA’s exceptional efforts have been recognized globally, including receiving the Guangzhou Award for Urban Innovations in 2021 and the prestigious World Resources Institute Award for 2021-22. Furthermore, the Governments success in extending Drink From Tap by creating institutions such as WATCO was acknowledged with the Distinction of Global Water Leader Awards 2022 in the Global Water Summit held in Spain.
The critical element ensuring the widescale successful implementation and impact of schemes implemented in cities across Odisha is the extensive engagement with people from the vulnerable communities, that too on a large scale through Mission Shakti Groups and the Slum Dwellers’ Association.
Participating in the discussions, the Collectors highlighted how the widespread adoption of digital infrastructures and technology, has improved the quality of service delivery and enhanced citizen satisfaction in cities & towns across Odisha. Some of the technology tools & applications covered during the presentation involved Ama Sahara for SWM across 115 cities, Safa Application of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, SUJOG – Odisha’s e-governance portal for delivery of urban services, smart water management system and Biju Adarsh Colony portal – helping track progress in Jaga Mission and mapping assets & services in urban poor communities.
It was also indicated that initiatives in the pipeline such as MUKTA soft App for quickening the release of payment under MUKTA and Digital door and street numbering for the cities are going to revolutionise the urban governance in the coming days.