Bhubaneswar: The annual budget allocation for Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) will be doubled from the financial year 2021-22. Reviewing various projects and programmes being implemented by the WODC through virtual platform Monday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik asked concerned officials to double the allocation of the Council.
The budget allocation of the West Odisha Development Council has been increased from Rs 3 crore (1999-2000) to Rs 100 crore. Following order of CM, the state government’s grant to the Council will touch Rs 200 crore in the 2021-22 fiscal.
Similarly, Naveen has directed that focus should be on creation of more employment opportunities for the youths. He has also given instructions to set up offices of the WODC in 10 districts and Athamallik sub-division of Angul district for monitoring and early completion of projects in the region.
It was decided in the meeting to expedite the ongoing major projects of WODC and complete it on scheduled timeline. Newly-appointed chairman Asit Tripathy made detail presentation about the ongoing programmes and future action plan of the Council.