Odisha CS Anu Garg Reviews District Schemes, Urges Fast-Track Approvals

18 Sep 2026, 07:08 by Vinay Kakkad · KalingaTV

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Secretary Anu Garg has instructed district collectors across the state to dismantle procedural bottlenecks, fast-track inter-agency approvals, and untangle pending land disputes so that flagship public welfare programmes reach beneficiaries without delay.

Presiding over a comprehensive review session on Thursday from Lok Seva Bhavan, Garg engaged with district collectors participating through video conference. The administration scrutinized ground-level execution, clearing hurdles spanning several core departments, including Housing and Urban Development, Health and Family Welfare, Women and Child Development, School and Mass Education, MSME, and Labour and ESI.

Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary Deo Ranjan Kumar Singh, Housing and Urban Development Additional Chief Secretary Usha Padhee, and various departmental secretaries were present in person during the deliberations.

Resolving persistent real estate hurdles for infrastructure formed a central priority of the discussions. The Housing and Urban Development Department flagged land acquisition delays threatening essential drinking water projects, prompting a specific mandate for collectors to swiftly settle five critical land issues in Khordha, Sambalpur, and Cuttack districts. Municipal administrators were also urged to explore market-driven financing routes for smaller urban local bodies via the Credit Repayment Guarantee Sub-Scheme, alongside enforcing strict compliance with Supreme Court-mandated solid waste management protocols.

Public health and nutrition were addressed with equal urgency. Reviewing the Women and Child Development portfolio, the meeting evaluated the rollout of Poshan Maah-2026 and the Suposhit Odisha Mission. Officials were directed to leverage digital monitoring to identify and refer malnourished children, expand maternal registration, extend nutritional outreach into vulnerable pockets, and actively encourage the participation of fathers in nutrition campaigns.

Concurrently, the Health and Family Welfare Department evaluated site allocations for primary health centres and the AYUSH Medical College, alongside the performance of the Ama Hospital scheme and the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme. Compliance around biomedical waste treatment standards also came under review.

On education and heritage preservation, the administration assessed the execution of the Baraputra Aitiha Grama Yojana (Baraputra Heritage Corridor), the Godabarish Mishra Adarsha Primary School initiative, student hostel construction under Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas, and the statewide rollout of APAAR identity cards for pupils. In the agrarian and rural sector, officials evaluated farmer enrollment on AgriStack, handloom and handicraft support mechanisms, and the deployment of the digital crop survey for the Kharif-2026 season.

To stimulate regional industrial growth, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Department highlighted progress on its proposal to establish 30 MSME parks across all 30 districts of Odisha. Collectors were instructed to ensure regular convenings of district-level Single Window Clearance Authorities to assist startups and smooth out credit delivery.

Meanwhile, discussions under the Labour and ESI Department centered on land facilitation for a proposed 100-bed ESI hospital, industrial disaster preparedness for chemical hazards, the operations of local Labour Inspection Committees, and district task force interventions aimed at eradicating child labour.

Garg underscored that sustained district-level tracking and seamless departmental alignment remain critical to preventing construction delays and translating sanctioned policies into tangible public delivery.