BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on July 1, 2021, stressed the need for community involvement in developmental planning for regional growth. Addressing a programme for induction of 56 senior economic investigators in the Planning and Convergence department, the Chief Minister said evidence-based outcome-oriented planning, leading to achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and better human development indices (HDIs) is the need of the hour. “This will ensure growth with justice and equity,” he said.
Stating that systematic developmental planning requires involvement of the community and elected representatives who have better knowledge of local needs and resources, he said such an approach will help address distortions in local level planning and lead to balanced regional growth. The Chief Minister said proper planning supported by appropriate data analysis and better implementation is a pre-requisite for success of the development process.
In his address, Planning and Convergence Minister Padmanav Behera outlined the role of the department in decentralising planning and monitoring of development schemes. Chief Secretary SC Mohapatra said the department has a crucial role to play in planning for sustainable development. “The department closely monitors schemes to realise developmental goals,” he added.
Development Commissioner PK Jena said the newly inducted officers will undergo training for three months on various aspects of planning at the local level. The investigators will be involved in collection, compilation, scrutiny and analysis of data pertaining to local area development schemes. They will also provide support to district planning and monitoring units and assist in preparation of comprehensive district plan and monitoring of local area development schemes.