BHUBANESWAR: ‘Odisha Rural-Urban Transition Policy’, a policy under 5T governance aimed at removing the rural-urban divide in providing essential urban infrastructure, amenities and services to citizens residing in the fast-growing rural areas adjoining the cities, has been approved by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department officials said the policy intends to introduce a series of progressive and pragmatic measures to address the challenges of unplanned and unregulated urbanisation.
At present around 19 per cent of Odisha’s population resides in urban areas. This, however, is expected to reach 21 pc by 2031. Meanwhile, the growth of peri-urban areas account for nearly 40 pc of the urbanisation in the state, they added.
These peri-urban and rurban areas have been grappling with the challenge of inadequate access to social infrastructure and civic amenities and services even after declaration of such areas as urban areas.
“Absence of a comprehensive policy and robust institutions to contain unplanned urbanisation has been the primary reason for this situation,” the department officials underlined.
To address this issue, the Rural-Urban Transition Policy aims at providing urban civic amenities to the people in the identified rural areas much before the areas are formally notified as urban areas. The policy allows creation of special budget for implementation of infrastructure projects and delivery of services while actively involving the elected representatives, officials and all other stakeholders in planning, execution and monitoring of the transition process.
The rural areas, after an intensive process of identification, will be declared as urban areas from the date on which the tenure of the existing elected representatives expire. During the interim period, these notified rural areas will be taken up for up-gradation of infrastructure and services to provide all urban services on par with the adjacent urban areas.