Naveen Patnaik announces formation of committee to judge schemes

Bhubaneswar, June 17: Asking the district authorities to open up and talk fearlessly about the problems they faced during implementation of welfare schemes, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today announced formation of a committee to judge the best practices adopted by collectors in their respective districts.

Patnaik said this while inagurating the two-day Collectors Confenrence here at the state secretariat. The committee will have six members comprising three ministers and three bureaucrats.

The committee members were: Excise minister Damodar Rout, Women and Child Development minister Usha Devi, School and Mass Education department minister Debi Mishra, Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan, Energy secretary Suresh Mohapatra and Health secretary Aarti Ahuja.

The committee will identify the best practices adopted by the collectors in their districts and select the top three best practices, which will be rewarded at the valedictory session of the collectors’ conference tomorrow.

“As the head of the administration at the district level, you play a critical role in the development process.

You are the cutting edge of our service delivery system. Your leadership at the district level can significantly improve the performance,” Patnaik said.

Assuring all possible support to the district collectors in all pro-people initiative, Patnaik said: “I want that all of you should work hard with all sincerity and commitment so that the benefits of all our development and welfare schemes reach the intended beneficiaries till the last mile."

Patnaik said rural housing, drinking water schemes and some other programmes directly linked with the people should get priority of district collectors. As many as 18 points would be discussed in the two-day collectors conference.

PTI