Bhubaneswar: With a view to making services provided by Rural Development (RD) department more people centric, the state government has decided to bring the department under the ambit of Mo Sarkar from February 1, said Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Pradeep Jena.
The Chief Minister, Rural Development Minister and officials would seek feedback from beneficiaries of different schemes once the department concerned comes under Mo Sarkar.
Speaking to media persons here Wednesday, Jena said about 4,300 villages in Odisha still lack proper road connectivity. After the inclusion of the department in Mo Sarkar, new roads will be built while several others will be redesigned.
“Our main focus will be to revise the district road network plan that was envisaged way back in 2003. The purpose of the revision is to connect all the habitations with population of more than 100 with road,” Jena said.
The RD department will work in coordination with Panchayati Raj, Forest, Works, Tribal Development and Water Resources departments to identify villages that do not have road connectivity, he said.
The department will also build inter-block, inter-district and inter-state roads so bridge the gap. In many of the bordering areas, due to revenue boundary disputes, roads have not been constructed. As a result, people residing there have been suffering. Therefore, the government has decided to identify such gaps and build roads, sources said.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that Labour and Employees’ State Insurance department will come under the purview of Mo Sarkar very soon.