Minister takes stock of initiatives across 115 ULBs

Minister Housing and Urban Development Usha Devi had visited State Urban Development Agency recently. During her visit she interacted with the officials to get a picture of the various initiatives being implemented across 115 ULBs to improve the livelihood of the urban poor in the state.

Project Director, SUDA Sarada Prasad Panda made a detail presentation on the activities undertaken so far by State Urban Development Agency. During the presentation, he made special mention of the way in which poor and vulnerable people have been organised into community institutions and given financial support to sustain their livelihood.

Further he mentioned about how at the time of crisis, Government of Odisha supported the street vendors with Rs 3,000 thrice to survive through the pandemic period.

20650 Mission Shakti Groups have been productively engaged in various community driven initiatives like MUKTA, AAHAAR, Jalasathi, SWM, FSTP, Pickle Unit, SUH etc.

He also highlighted the flagship Aahar programme in which 157 Mission Shakti Groups are engaged in serving one lakh meals daily to the poor and needy across 167 centres in the State.

Panda also highlighted about the Jalsathi initiative wherein 740 SHG members are engaged in collection of Water Tax and conduct of Water Quality Test at the household level.

The Minister later inaugurated the web portal of SUDA. This will not only provide access on information on various urban focused initiatives but also act as a point of reference.