Around 1.4 lakh dwelling houses sanctioned for the urban poor in Odisha

This was known from the State Level Sanctioning and Monitoring (SLSM) committee meeting held via digital mode under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra. Reviewing the progress made so far, Development Commissioner Mohapatra directed the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to intensify Jaga mission activities in their respective areas.

Mohapatra said, “A house is the bare basic need of the urban poor and allotting a piece of homestead land to the landless will be an effective counter to urban poverty. Right over a piece of land, while enabling access of the urban poor under OUHM programmes will also add to their identity and self-dignity.”

Further, Mohapatra directed the Revenue and Disaster Management Department and ULBs to identify more patches of land and protect those from encroachment for bringing the dispersed houses to one place of resettlement so that they could be provided other basic services in a more organized manner.

The ULBs were also directed to identify the slum dwellers who can be allotted homestead land under forest rights act in urban areas. Presenting the updates, Mission Director Suresh Chandra Dalai said, “So far 1,39,149 houses have been sanctioned in favour of urban poor families out of which 1,04,838 work orders have been issued.”

According to the Odisha Government, till now 54,034 houses have been completed and the rest are at different stages of construction. Joint Director of the state government’s housing program Sushant Mishra appraised that earlier around 7,000 housing units recommended by the SLSM committee were sent to the Government of India (GoI) for final approval. With GoI approval, more than 15,273 new beneficiary households would get their own dwelling houses, he added.