BHUBANESWAR: The state cabinet on Wednesday approved the amendments in the Odisha Panchayat Samiti Accounting Procedure Rules, 2002 to increase the technical sanction and administrative approval powers for developmental works at the panchayat samiti level.
As per the cabinet decision, the financial power of block development officers (BDOs) to pass bills of panchayat samiti works has been raised from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh without further countersignature of the chairman of the panchayat samiti concerned.
Further, the authority to accord administrative approval of plans and estimates for panchayat samiti projects has also been delegated to the CDO-cum-EO, Zilla Parishad to expedite financial approvals and ensure smooth implementation of developmental schemes.
For general developmental schemes with or without MGNREGA components, junior/assistant engineers can now accord technical sanction of up to Rs 5 lakh, while assistant executive engineers have been empowered to sanction projects worth up to Rs 20 lakh. Executive engineers will sanction projects of up to Rs 1 crore and superintending engineers up to Rs 4 crore. The projects above Rs 4 crore will be sanctioned by the chief engineer.
Similarly, the administrative approval powers for general development schemes have also been revised. BDOs can now approve projects of up to Rs 20 lakh, panchayat samiti chairman up to Rs 50 lakh and the CDO-cum-EOs of Zilla Parishads will now exercise approval powers for projects above Rs 50 lakh.
“These amendments will expedite bill processing, ensure timely approvals and facilitate smooth implementation of developmental programmes across all panchayat samitis while retaining the supervisory role of the chairman,” said chief secretary Manoj Ahuja.
The cabinet also cleared a proposal of the Health and Family Welfare department to procure 428 ambulances under the National Health Mission (NHM) at an estimated cost of Rs 118.98 crore.
Odisha has a fleet of 860 road ambulances under Emergency Medical Ambulance Service (EMAS), a joint initiative of both the Centre and the state government.
While 421 ambulances are required to be replaced as they are more than five years old and have run more than 2.5 lakh km, two ambulances will be procured for deployment at Cardiac Care Hospital in Jharsuguda and five for use in airports/airstrips. MCL will provide `92 lakh and the rest `118.06 crore will be met from the state budget for the procurement of the ambulances.