BHUBANESWAR: Odisha is bringing about transformation in every field and has become a model state in the field of disaster management, said Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari here on Saturday.
Addressing a round table, ‘Towards a Climate Resilient Odisha’, organised by the Finance department in collaboration with Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FDCO)’s Infrastructure for Climate Resilient Growth (ICRG) programme, Pujari said Odisha is one of the leading states in India to have prepared a state-level action plan on climate change (SAPCC).
There is an urgent need to operationalize all the initiatives by effective implementation of the action plan, introducing locally led adaptation and mitigation practices and through adaptive social protection measures, he said. Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena said Odisha has been witnessing a series of cyclones in the last few years which were the result of climate change.
Recurring cyclones and floods pose a challenge to food security and result in the depletion of groundwater and water pollution. There is a need for more scientific research to address the issue, he said. British Deputy High Commissioner, East and North East India, Nick Low, said the UK government through its Department for International Development (DFID) is supporting the state government in different fields including sustainable climate resilient growth through a combination of technological assistance (TA) and development capital (DevCAP).
Principal Secretary Finance Vishal Kumar Dev, special secretary P&C Chitra Arumugam, Ashish Chaturvedi from UNDP, and Parul Agrawal from UN-HABITAT, India spoke on the learning from UNDP supported projects on climate change.