BHUBANESWAR: Undeterred by growing public resentment over lack of availability of basic services in the Capital City, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has gone ahead with its tie-up spree with consultants to lessen its responsibilities towards several aspects of urban governance.
The BMC on Monday hired a consultancy firm Stesalit India to advise on making the City slum-free at a workshop titled ‘Slum Free City-Action Plan’ organised here.
During the workshop, Stesalit executives elaborated on a road map to make the city slum-free and rehabilitate the affected population. The firm has conducted a survey in around 486 slums under BMC’s jurisdiction for preparing the slum-free city action plan.
“While the Central Government already runs Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), which has been effective for the last seven years, the civic body seems to lack confidence on the technical expertise of its professional workforce to execute the programme,” a corporator said asking not to be quoted.
Under RAY, the Government of India has set the target to make cities free from slums. However, the task has been sub-leased to Stesalit to prepare an action plan for the purpose.
“The firm is being consulted by Department of Housing and Urban Development to advice BMC on slum-free action plan. We are adhering to the Department’s directives,” a senior BMC official said.
Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, Corporators and BMC officials participated in the workshop and provided inputs. Some of the corporators expressed dissatisfaction over BMC’s stance to rope in consultants who lack first hand knowledge of issues while relocating slums in several Wards.
Others suggested that bio-metric system should be incorporated to identify proper beneficiaries.
Among others, Deputy Mayor, officials of Housing and Urban Development Department and BMC were present.