BHUBANESWAR: The Housing and Urban Development department joined the Mo Sarkar initiative on Friday with an objective to bring in professionalism and effect behavioural changes.
Announcing the decision at a function in Loka Seva Bhavan, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said “I am glad that our initiative to bring all the departments under Mo Sarkar by March 31, 2020 is gaining momentum. And in this sequence, I am glad that Housing and Urban Development Department is coming under the initiative.”
Stating that Housing and Urban Development is one of the most important wings of the Government considering the rapid urbanisation and growing demand for modern infrastructure for providing efficient amenities, the Chief Minister said “We are happy that we are moving in the right direction in making both modern and humane provisions for the general public.”
The Government is set to provide quality drinking water to all the households in urban areas of the State and basic rights to urban poor through Jaga Mission, Naveen said and added, the Drink From Tap Mission in Bhubaneswar is one of the most promising initiatives taken up by the department.
Naveen said necessary capacity building, technology upgradation and awareness efforts have been taken up for fully preparing the department to function under Mo Sarkar. Stating that there should be conviction on the vision of Mo Sarkar, he asked all public servants to treat the citizens with dignity.
HUD Minister Pratap Jena said the department has already opened Mo Sarkar cells to facilitate the provisions of the initiative. Appreciating the preparedness of the department, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said it is both an opportunity as well as challenge. He expected that the department will achieve the desired results.
Secretary 5T VK Pandian interacted with the executive officers of several municipalities and NACs to assess the understanding of the officials on Mo Sarkar. He asked questions on Mo Sarkar to executive officers of Patnagarh, Rairangpur, Bonai, Rajgangpur, Athmallick, Talcher, Jeypore and Kabisuryanagar. He appreciated the fact that most of the officers have quite significant awareness on Mo Sarkar and asked all the officials to ensure that there should be no harassment of any citizen coming for any service to any public office.
Principal Secretary in the department G Mathivathan said 500 officials from 343 offices were imparted orientation training for the purpose. There has been technology upgradation with exclusive web application for collection and dissemination of citizen-centric information, he said.