BHUBANESWAR: A day after Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi announced plans for creation of 21 new notified area councils (NACs), the state government on Saturday issued a draft notification proposing to constitute 12 urban bodies in seven districts in the first phase.
The Housing and Urban Development department has released the list of 12 proposed NACs and the names of panchayats to come under the urban local bodies seeking objections and suggestions from the people likely to be affected.
As per the draft notification, one each in Angul, Sonepur and Rayagada districts, two each in Balasore, Sambalpur and Bhadrak districts and three in Mayurbhanj district will be constituted as NACs. The proposed NACs are Pallahara in Angul district, Biramaharajpur in Sonepur, Simulia and Basta in Balasore, Betnoti, Bangriposi and Chitrada in Mayurbhanj, Bissam Cuttack in Rayagada, Bamra and Rengali in Sambalpur and Tihidi and Dhusuri in Bhadrak.
The stakeholders have been urged to submit the feedback through their respective district collector within a period of 30 days from the date of the publication of this notification. The department has begun the initial works to constitute the NACs as per the rising density of population, revenue generation for local administration, percentage of employment in non-agricultural activities and economic importance of the revenue villages to come under the civic bodies.
Housing and Urban Development minister Dr Krushna Chandra Mahapatra said the state government wants to increase urban areas from existing 17 per cent to 30 pc in view of rapid urbanisation. “The draft notification has been issued for 12 NACs now and a similar notification for the remaining nine will be released soon,” he told mediapersons.
In July, the chief minister had announced plans to upgrade Puri municipality into a municipal corporation by merging seven to eight panchayats of adjoining Brahmagiri block.
Although ahead of the 2024 elections, the then Odisha government had announced the formation of 57 NACs and upgradation of five NACs into municipalities, the H&UD minister had informed the Assembly in September last year that there was no proposal from the collectors for creation of new NACs in their districts. Only letters were written to the collectors by the BJD government on the decision to create new NACs keeping an eye on the 2024 elections, he had said.