Bhubaneswar: The state government has decided to set up a dedicated project monitoring unit (PMU) for planning, monitoring and coordination of the work plans for achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a time-bound manner.
This was revealed at the consultation meeting of state government with Niti Aayog Advisory Team on SDG Index India 2020-21 held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra here Monday.
The government has taken this decision following Niti Aayog’s latest SDG report wherein Odisha slipped to 19th position in 2020-21 from 15th last year.
The special PMU will be set up in the Planning and Convergence department. It was decided at the meeting to form seven thematic groups under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretaries (ACSs) and Principal Secretaries that would spearhead the SDG vision and bring synergy in implementation of the work plans.
Considering the data presented in the meeting by Niti Aayog team led by advisor Sanyukta Samaddar, the Chief Secretary emphasised on capturing ground level outcomes of all developmental interventions.
During the meeting, Mahapatra said the outcomes of the state schemes like Mamata, Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, universal health assurance scheme, rural housing, urban housing, State Food Security scheme, state’s performance grading index (PGI) score in education among others should also be taken into account while assessing the SDG performance.
Development Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jena said that Odisha’s performance in a number of areas was not properly reflected in the SDG Report of 2020.
State government officials informed the meeting that had the outcomes of both state and Central schemes been taken into account properly, Odisha’s score in Goal-1 would have touched 50 instead of 41. Similarly, Goal-2 and Goal-9 scores of the state would have reached 56 and 48 respectively instead of the present score of 45 and 46 in the report.
The overall SDG performance of Odisha was increased to 61 in the year 2020 from 51 in 2019.
The state ranked No-1 in SDG -13 relating to action on combating climate change and its impacts. The state also ranked No-1 in SDG-14 relating to conservation and sustainability of the use of ocean, sea and marine resources.