- Rain Water Harvesting Structures will be constructed in 114 ULBs of the state
- Mission Shakti Groups as Implementing partners under the Urban Wage Employment Initiative
Bhubaneswar (Kalinga Voice) : The Urban Wage Employment Initiative was introduced on 18th April 2020 amid COVID pandemic to provide critical support to the vulnerable sections of the urban poor and migrant workers whose livelihood was adversely affected by COVID.
UWEI has impacted the lives of the marginalised groups across all the 114 Urban Local Bodies of the state and provided them with livelihood opportunities when they needed it the most. The Scheme is unique with its bottom-up people centric approach. It attempts to achieve convergence of a number of critical areas of urban development i.e., sustainable livelihood to the poor, vulnerable and marginalised people living in the urban centres, protection of environment, creation of climate resilient community assets, building trust-based partnership with community-based organisations, thereby strengthening the fourth tier of governance and achieving community centric and community led development.
Within just one year of its launching, the success of UWEI caught National and International attention. MoHUA, Govt of India has highlighted UWEI and urged other States to replicate the initiative. Odisha found a place in top 15 shortlisted entries for Urban Innovation at the prestigious 2020 Guangzhou International Award. Entries for this award were selected from 273 initiatives from 175 Cities & 60 Countries across the World
Odisha is the first state to have mandated strengthening and promotion the 4th tier of governance i.e.governance at community level through creation of jobs and public assets, which were entirely planned and implemented by and for the community. The initiative engages Women SHGs and Slum Dwellers Associations for building and maintaining public assets. The initiative has helped in building capacity of the community and institutionalised WSHGs/MSGs and the SDAs.
More than 8102 projects worth Rs. 140 crores been executed across 114 ULBs, out of which 82% of projects have already been completed and another 15% projects are ongoing. More than 14.99 lakh persondayshas already been generated. Most significantly, 43% of the total wage-seekers comprise of women. A total of 5920 SHGs & 650 SDAs have been engaged as Implementation Partners. On wage employment front, so far Rs. 48.36 crore has been released to the urban poor and Rs. 3.96 crore has been released to Mission Shakti Groups/SDAs towards supervision charges. Under this project 2035 ward committee have been formed in 114 ULBs and 2711 no of ward level meeting have been conducted to empower the communities. So far UWEI covered 91% slum areas and 86% of the wards.
Considering its impact in transforming the lives of the urban poor, the Government has decided to implement it as a permanent scheme namely Mukhya Mantri Karma Tatpara Abhiyan (MUKTA) in all 114 ULBs of the state, which will be notified shortly by the Government.
It is now decided by Government that Rain Water Harvesting Structures will be constructed under the Urban Wage Employment Initiative (UWEI) in each ward of all 114 ULBs of Odisha with Mission Shakti Groups engaged as Implementing Partners. The initiative will be taken up in a mission mode. All the 114 ULBs have been directed to immediately identify the open spaces like parks, playgrounds etc. where the Rain Water Harvesting Structures shall be constructed in the first phase.
A State Level Task Force headed by Principal Secretary H&UDD G Mathi Vathanan and City Level Core Group headed by Commissioner/EO have been constituted to oversee execution of 5000 rainwater harvesting structures proposed to be created in the next 2 months’ time before the onset of monsoons. A capacity building programme was organised by the Department on April 23rd to train Engineers from all the ULBs, Development Authorities and Planning Authorities on low cost technological models. Senior officers of H&UD Department sensitised the functionaries on the road map and discussed the step by step SOP on how the targets would be achieved within the stipulated timeline. City Engineer, BMC,Bhubaneswar made a technical presentation to all the ULB functionaries on the models of RWHS already installed in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. ULBs have been directed to immediately ensure issuance of work orders to Mission Shakti Group, sensitise them and start execution of work.
Dedicated PMU has been set up at Department level to monitor and facilitate all UWEI activities. Besides, the ULBs have also been provided with the required human resources to implement UWEI. Principal Secretary Mr Mathivathanan has directed that targets shall be fixed ward-wise and Engineer-wise and their performance shall be reviewed regularly by the State Level Task Force.
While addressing the Participants Principal Secretary Mr Mathivathanan impressed that sustainable water management is the focus of the Department and the most important method of doing it will be commissioning of various RWHS. This will be helpful in reducing the runoff and flash floods apart from ensuring ground water recharge. This will help in stabilising the hydrological balance and ensure climate resilience of urban areas.
He said,this is the first of a series of steps which has to be initiated to put in place a comprehensive water conservation model in all the urban areas. He further advised the officials to ensure transparency and community participation while executing the projects.He has emphasised on achieving the target of a minimum of 5000 RWHS’ in the parks, play grounds, open spaces and vacant spaces inside the institutional premises. Every ward in the smaller towns should have 5 to 10 RWHS and in the Corporations each ward should have 20 to 25 RWHS. It was also said that the best performing ULBs and Engineers will also be awarded.
