ROURKELA: Elected members of Sundargarh zilla parishad (ZP) along with panchayat samiti (PS) chairpersons from all 17 blocks of Sundargarh on Tuesday demanded more funding for development of their respective rural constituencies.
The demand for more funds was made at the seventh meeting of the ZP council convened at Bikash Bhawan of Sundargarh town. Development and welfare activities of Health, Education, Water Resources, Drinking Water Supply, Rural Development, Forest, Works and Agriculture departments were reviewed at the meeting held under the leadership of ZP president Kunti Pradhan.
Scrutinising various incomplete and delayed projects, the meeting laid thrust on completing projects in specific time frames. New proposals were also presented for approval.
Pradhan said the ZP members and PS chairpersons demanded more funding support for projects from the District Mineral Foundation, critical gap fund, OMBADC, corporate social responsibility and others to help take up necessary development works in their areas.
The elected members are only getting some funding support from the Central and State Finance Commissions. With barely one year left for them, they earnestly requested urgent sanction and release of funds from remaining sources other than the finance commissions, she added.
Attending the meeting, Union Tribal Affairs Minister and Sundargarh MP Jual Oram laid emphasis on successful implementation of all government-sponsored welfare and poverty alleviations schemes. He said it should be ensured that all deserving beneficiaries reap benefits of these schemes.
The Works and Rural Development departments informed the meeting about ongoing and upcoming initiatives on road communication and infrastructure projects. Similarly, the health authorities apprised the house about the present status of health infrastructure, immunisation programmes and implementation Ayushman Bharat PM Jan Arogya Yojana and Vaya Vandana scheme.
The elected representatives including the MLAs raised demands for extending better healthcare services to the people in their areas with removal of discrepancies in health infrastructure, availability of doctors and paramedics and ambulance services. They also urged the Education department to take effective measures to curb school dropout rate.
Discussions also focused on measures to boost rural sanitation and strengthen drinking water supply with implementation of Basudha scheme, digging of tube-wells, setting up of mega piped water projects and solar pump sets.
Among others, MLAs BS Bhoi, DC Tanti, Jogesh Singh, Rohit Joseph Tirkey and Laxman Munda, Sundargarh collector and ZP chief executive officer Subhankar Mohapatra and chief development officer Suranjan Sahoo were present.